392 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



By means of these arrangements the pregnant oyster deposits its 

 very numerous progeny in quiet repose ; the young fry are inter- 

 cepted by the fagots and hurdles suspended between the piles, where 

 the young oysters develop themselves under the favourable conditions 

 of repose, temperature, and light. When the fishing season arrives, 

 the piles and fagots which surround the beds are removed, and the 

 oysters are gatliered suitable for market. The oysters thus selected 

 for sale are packed loosely in osier baskets, and sunk, while waiting 

 for purchasers, into a reserve or park. This park is established on 

 the shores of the lake. It is constructed of piles, which support a 

 gangway, provided with hooks, from which the baskets, filled with 

 living oysters, are suspended, ready for sale. 



Some twenty years ago the oyster-beds of France had become 

 totally exhausted under the open system of dredging ; and circum- 

 stances having brought the protective system pursued at Fusaro 

 under the notice of M. Coste — a learned academician, to whom 

 France is indebted for restoring to it its oysters — he reported to the 

 Emperor in 1858 that at Rochelle, Marennes, Rochefort, at the Isles 

 of Re and Oleron, where there had been fonnerly twenty-three oyster- 

 beds, there were now only five, and these in danger of being destroyed 

 by the increase of mussels ; that at the Bay of St. Brieuc, so naturally 

 suited for oyster culture, the beds were reduced to three ; that even 

 on the classic oyster grounds of Cancale and Granville, it was only by 

 the most careful administration that their destruction was prevented, 

 while the increasing numbers of consumers threatened altogether to 

 destroy an industry essentially necessary for the support of a maritime 

 population. 



The impulse given by this report has been productive of the most 

 satisfactory results in France. All along the coast the maritime 

 populations are now actively engaged in oyster culture. Oyster 

 parks, in imitation of those at Fusaro, have spnmg up. In his 

 appeal to the Emperor, M. Coste suggested that the State, through 

 the Administration of Marine, and by means of the vessels at its 

 command, should take steps for sowing the whole French coast in 

 such a manner as to re-establish the oyster-banks now in ruins, 

 extend those which were prosperous, and create others anew where- 

 ever the nature of the bottom would permit. The first serious 

 attempt to carry out the views of the distinguished academician 

 was made in the Bay of St. Brieuc. In the month of April in the 

 same year in which his report w^as received operations commenced 

 by planting 3,000,000 mother-oysters which had been dredged in 

 the common ground ; brood from the oyster grounds at Cancale and 



