264 MARITIME PISCICULTURE. 



this country. M. Coste speaks of the beautiful mussels 

 daily used at table, and inform those who use them that 

 they mistake in supposing that, like oysters, they come 

 from natural banks, where they live in their wild state. 

 They are not aware, it seems, of the artifice by means 

 of which human industry gives such an improved shape 

 and flavour to the lean, little, bitter, and often unwhole- 

 some mussel, so numerous among the rocks and sands 

 of the French coast. 



The mussel has not been much written about. The 

 most curious details regarding mussel-rearing are found 

 in a very rare book, published at Eouen in 1598, and 

 bearing this title : ' Theatre des merveilles de 1'indus- 

 trie humaine.' It is carried on in " bouchots" a term, 

 according to M. Coste, contracted from bout-choat, which 

 is a compound from the Celtic and the Irish bout, an 

 enclosure, and choat, wooden. The latest information 

 regarding this species of industry appears in the ' Aii- 

 nals of the Agricultural Society of Rochelle for 1846.' 



An interesting story is connected with this importa- 

 tion of an Irish word into the dialect of the western 

 coast of France. In the bay of Aiguillon, not far from 

 Kochelle, a poor shipwrecked Irishman originated an 

 industry which has lasted more than six hundred years, 

 and been the means of furnishing a comfortable liveli- 

 hood to three thousand people. In the year 1235 a 

 bark, laden with sheep, and manned by three men, was 

 driven from the Irish coast by a furious gale, and 

 dashed among the rocks near the harbour of Esnandes. 

 All would have perished but for the gallantry of the 

 fishermen, who hastened to help the ship in distress. 

 Their utmost exertions could only rescue one of the 

 crew the skipper, Walton the founder of the first 

 bouchot, a beneficent invention which has for long en- 

 riched one French province, and the application of 

 which to other coasts will, M. Coste predicts, one day 

 cause the yet obscure name of the inventor to be en- 

 rolled among the most useful benefactors of humanity. 



