380 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



every day, giving the happiest presages of an abundant harvest. 

 Already twelve hundred capitalists, associated with a similar number 

 of fishermen, occupy a surface of nine hundred and eighty-eight acres, 

 which emerge at low water. In this bay the State has organized two 

 model farms for experimental purposes, in which tiles, fascines, and 

 valves of shells are laid down with other appliances, to which the 

 young oysters may attach themselves. These expedients have been so 

 successful that the park, which has cost about 114, is now estimated 

 to be worth about 80 00 in money, with a total of five million oysters, 

 large and small. The Isle of Re, which was originally surrounded by 

 a muddy bottom ill adapted for oyster culture, has been totally 

 changed, so that in two years four leagues of foreshore have been 

 turned into a rich and profitable oyster-bed ; twelve hundred parks 

 are in full activity, and two thousand others are in course of construc- 

 tion, the whole forming a complete girdle round the island. 



Every one has heard of the green oysters of Marennes, the preserva- 

 tion, amelioration, and ripening of these oysters, so to speak, repre- 

 senting a very considerable branch of industry in France. In order to 

 give the reader some idea of its importance, we shall give here a brief 

 summary of M. Coste's voyage of exploration on the French littoral. 



The parks at Marennes, in which the oysters are placed in order to 

 acquire the green colour which characterises them, are basins stretch- 

 ing along both banks of the Seudre for many leagues. They are 

 locally known as claires, and differ from the oyster-parks of other 

 countries in this particular that, while the ordinary parks are so 

 arranged as to be submerged at every return of the tide, the basins of 

 Marennes are so arranged that they can only be submerged at spring 

 tides ; that is, at the new and full moon, when the waters rise beyond 

 the ordinary level. 



The basins or claires occupy from two hundred and fifty to three 

 hundred square yards of superficies; two sluices permit of the en- 

 trance and withdrawal of water at will, so as to maintain it at the level 

 most convenient to the industrial wants of the place, or to empty it 

 altogether when it is necessary to cleanse the basin, pave the bottom, 

 and furnish it with a fresh supply of oysters. 



When these necessary works are completed, advantage is taken of 

 the first spring tide to fill the basin. When the tide begins to ebb, 

 the sluices are closed, so as to retain sufficient water in the basins ; 



