GROWTH OF THE BIVALVE. 293 



and Scotland there are numerous parts of the coast where 

 mytiliculture could be pursued with no less advantage. 

 Meantime, as M. Coste remarks, the Bay of Aiguillon 

 remains as a memorial of what may be accomplished by 

 the efforts of a single individual. 



The various processes of the " cultivation " are these : 

 Towards the end of April the seed (semence) which, 

 during the two preceding months, has become attached 

 to the piles of the bouchot du bas, attains to the size of 

 a grain of flax, and is then designated the nuissain. By 

 July it has grown as large as a bean, and receiving the 

 name of cenouvelain, is ready to be transplanted to the less 

 comfortable pastures of the bouchot batard. The boucho- 

 tier proceeds to remove it, during low water, by means 

 of a hook fixed to the end of a pole, and in his punt con- 

 veys it across the mud to the fences of the bouchot batard, 

 where, enclosed in bags of old net, it is placed in all the 

 intervals along the palisades until the different hurdles 

 are fully covered. This operation is called la batrisse. 

 The bags are large enough to admit of the development 

 of the young mussels ; and, moreover, the action of the 

 water and the atmosphere soon rots them, and they fall 

 away, leaving the bivalves attached to the sides of the 

 bouchot. 



In due time the mussels grow so large as to touch one 

 another, and the fences at a distance seem long lines of 

 blackness; then the mytiliculturist thins the mass, just 

 as a gardener thins an overcrowded bed of turnips or 

 carrots. The thinned-out mussels are transplanted to the 

 empty or partially-covered hurdles of the bouchot milieu, 

 which at neap-tides is left exposed by the water. In 



