160 FISH. 



prise are diseased and settled by vote ; elect chiefs 

 who direct the operations, and a body of " sworn 

 guards" who keep watch and ward over the 

 grounds, and superintend the gathering in of 

 the common harvest ; vote a tax which forms a 

 fund to defray the working expenses of the con- 

 cern; and elect delegates to represent their in- 

 terest before the authorities of the Marine Depart- 

 ment of the Government. All these measures 

 seem to have been developed spontaneously, and 

 by the mere force of things, among this humble 

 but highly prosperous population. But the raising 

 of oysters has not been confined solely to salt 

 water and the shores of the ocean. Five hundred 

 thousand oysters were carried over, in the summer 

 of 1860, from the coast of England, in the Cha- 

 mois, under the superintendence of M. Coste, and 

 were immer gcdin the pool of Than and in the 

 harbour of Toulon. Though the oysters were fa- 

 tigued and weakened by their long voyage, they 

 seem to have thriven in their new homes, despite 

 the different quality of the water, for a piece of 

 the watling, laid down in lieu of fasciens, which 

 has just been brought up for examination from 

 the roads of Toulon, was found to be fully as rich 



