THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CHAUSEY. 27 



the lobsters which supply the Paris market. They 

 employ for this purpose baskets or creels in the form 

 of a truncated cone, surmounted by an opening 

 which is so adjusted that the lobster cannot escape 

 after having once passed through the aperture. 

 Every fortnight at neap-tide the produce of the 

 fishing is carried to Coutances, where it is bought 

 up in the gross and despatched to the capital. 



The number of lobsters which each family takes 

 during the season may be estimated at about a 

 thousand or twelve hundred. Chausey, therefore, 

 exports annually from eight to nine thousand of 

 these crustaceans, the returns for which, paid at 

 Coutances, amount to ten or twelve thousand francs. 

 It would thus appear that each master-fisherman 

 realises rather less than thirteen or fourteen hundred 

 francs for his arduous labours, which are continued 

 for nearly nine months. 



The shrimp-fishing is left entirely to the women, 

 nine or ten of whom carry on this humble branch of 

 business. Supporting their nets upon their shoulders 

 they follow every indentation of the shore, carefully 

 searching the under surfaces of stones and the pools 

 in which these little crustaceans lie concealed ; with 

 care they may collect as many as four and a half 

 pounds weight in the course of the day : but this 

 branch of fishing is impracticable excepting when 

 the tides are low. The total produce cannot be 

 estimated at more than from four to six hundred- 

 weight for each person ; this, therefore, would give 

 about two and a half tons weight of shrimps for the 

 annual supply of Chausey, the greater part of which 



