268 MARITIME PISCICULTURE. 



sist of four parts, distinguished by different names, 

 according to their distance from the shore. Those far- 

 thest out are simple stakes, never uncovered except at 

 neap-tides. These solitary stakes are the best situated 

 for the preservation of the young mussels which fasten 

 on them. Everywhere else these excessively delicate 

 creatures would be too often dry, and could not with- 

 stand the prolonged heat of the sun nor severe cold. 

 These stakes are therefore the special points where are 

 left to accumulate the whole of the young ones, which 

 are afterwards to be transplanted to the empty or 

 partially- covered hurdles, which the sea leaves dry 

 more frequently. We may here remark that the differ- 

 ent operations are designated by agricultural terms, 

 such as sowing, planting, transplanting, weeding, prick- 

 ing-out, and reaping. 



Towards the month of April the seed, fixed in Feb- 

 ruary and March to the single stakes, is scarcely the 

 size of lintseed ; in May it reaches the size of a lentil ; 

 in July that of a French bean, and at this stage is 

 transplanted. At this season the mussel-gatherers de- 

 tach the young from the stakes by means of a rake 

 with a handle, and proceed to fasten them, one bunch 

 after another (each "wrapped in a piece of old net), 

 among the branches of the hurdles ; care being taken, 

 however, that each separate bunch shall be at such a 

 distance from the next one, that when grown they shall 

 not mutually incommode each other. The net soon 

 rots, and thus presents no obstacle to their expansion. 

 In the end they have grown so much as to touch each 

 other ; so that these immense palisades, when the fully- 

 developed bunches meet together, resemble the sides of 

 walls blackened by fire. 



Arrived at this stage, they can be weeded in order 

 to afford room for younger generations, and be pricked- 

 out an operation which is effected in the manner already 

 described ; that is, by wrapping each bunch in a piece 

 of net before consigning them to their new habitat. 



