MYTILID.E. 



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imitate his example. In a short time the whole bay was covered with 

 similar bouchots. At the present time these lines of hurdles form a 

 perfect forest in the little creek. About two hundred and thirty 

 thousand piles support a hundred and twenty-five thousand fascines, 

 which, according to M. Coste, " bend all the year under a harvest 

 which a squadron of ships of the line would fail to float." There are 

 about five hundred of these bouchots in the bay, each from two hundred 

 to two hundred and fifty yards in length and six feet high. 



The isolated piles are without palisades, and are uncovered only at 

 spring tides. In the months of February and March the spat collected 



Fig. 160. Isolated piles covered with the spawn of mussels. 



on them scarcely equals in size a grain of linseed ; by the month of 

 May it will be about the size of a split pea ; in July, a small haricot 

 bean : this is the moment for its transplantation. In this month the 

 louchotiers, as the men occupied in this culture are called, launch 

 their punts and proceed to the part of the bay where these piles are 

 driven. They detach with a hook the agglomerated masses of young 

 mussels, which they gather in baskets, and carry them to their 

 bouchots. These bouchots, that is to say, the piles covered with fascines 

 and branches, are of four different heights, forming, so to speak, four 

 stages, according to the age and growth of the mussel. Each stage 

 receives the mollusc suitable to it. In the first stage of its existence 

 the mussel cannot endure exposure to the air, and remains constantly 



