FKENCH-BRED MUSSELS. 267 



fully occupied by the spawn for the season ; and the 

 very next spring the beautiful mussels reared in these 

 artificial parks were preferred in all the markets. His 

 neighbours, struck with the profit derived from his in- 

 dustry, imitated his example with such eagerness that 

 the whole sands were speedily covered with bouchots; 

 "and," observes M. Coste, "when writing these lines a 

 forest of two hundred and thirty thousand stakes is 

 employed for the permanent support of a hundred and 

 twenty-five thousand hurdles, groaning under the an- 

 nual harvest, which could not be stowed away in a 

 squadron of ships of the line." 



This immense rearing of mussels, a species of food 

 little esteemed among us, is deserving of consideration, 

 because opening up new fields of industry, and furnish- 

 ing the labouring classes with an alimentary substance 

 of no mean value. Our mussels neither enter largely 

 into the national subsistence, nor ought they to do so 

 in the native state in which alone we are acquainted 

 with them. But improved by the processes pursued on 

 the western coast of France, it cannot be questioned 

 that mussel-rearing would be profitable, because the 

 public would soon learn to appreciate their taste and 

 appearance. And when our readers peruse our subse- 

 quent statements as to the economical results of Wal- 

 ton's process, it must be borne in mind that we speak 

 of mussels judiciously manipulated ab ovo until they 

 grace the dinner-table of people quite able to appreciate 

 culinary dainties. If the French eat millions of mus- 

 sels, we may depend upon it that they are worth eating, 

 and that the sooner we make acquaintance with such 

 educated molluscs, the better will it be for the interests 

 of our fishermen and of the public stomach. Between 

 a French-bred mussel and one picked up by chance at 

 the mouth of the Tay or the Clyde, there is such a dif- 

 ference as at once to explain the comparative value of 

 mussels in France and Great Britain. The bouchots, 

 the employment of which occasions this difference, con- 



