BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 357 



the lonely shore of the Aunis, with a few sheep saved from shipwreck, 

 Walton at first supported himself by hunting sea-fowl, which fre- 

 quented the shore and neighbouring marshes in vast flocks. He 

 was a skilful fowler, and invented or adapted a peculiar kind of net, 

 which he called the night net. This consisted of a net some 300 or 

 400 yards in length by three in breadth, which he placed horizontally, 

 like a screen, along the quiet waters of the bay, retaining it in its 

 position by means of posts driven into the muddy bottom. In the 

 obscurity of the night the wild fowl, in floating along the surface of 

 the waters, would come in contact with the net, and get themselves 

 entangled in its meshes. 



But the Bay of Aiguillon was only a vast lake of mud, in which 

 boats moved with difficulty ; and Walton, having arranged his bird- 

 net, began to consider what kind of boat would enable him most 

 conveniently to navigate the sea of mud. The flat-bottomed, square- 

 sided boat, known in our rivers as a punt, and on the Norman coast 

 as an aeon, was the result. Walton's boat had a wooden frame some 

 three yards long and one in breadth and depth, the fore part of 

 which sloped down into the water, in the form of a prow, at a slight 

 angle. In propelling the boat the rower, who occupied the stern of 

 the punt, knelt on his right knee (as represented in Fig. 158), 

 inclining forward, with one hand on each edge, and the left leg out- 

 side the boat. A vigorous push with the left foot gave the frail boat 

 an impulse, under which it rapidly traversed the bay from one point 

 to the other. 



The mussels swarmed in the little bay; and Walton soon 

 remarked that they attached themselves by preference to that part of 

 the post a little above the mud, and that those so placed soon 

 became fatter, as well as more agreeable to the taste, than those 

 buried in the mud. He saw in this peculiarity the elements of a 

 sort of mussel culture which might become a new branch of industry. 

 "The practices he introduced/' says M. Coste, "were so happily 

 adapted to the requirements of the new industry, that, after six 

 centuries, they are still the rules by which the rich patrimony he 

 created for a numerous population is governed. He seems to have 

 applied himself to the enterprise, conscious not only of the service 

 he was rendering to his contemporaries, but desirous that their 

 descendants should remember him, for in every instance he has 

 given to the apparatus which he invented the form of his initial letter 

 W. After due consideration, Walton began to carry out his design. 

 He planted a long range of piles along the low marshy shore, each 

 pair forming a letter V, the front of the letter being towards the sea, 



