78 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
ing, Mr. Benjamin Gaillon, in 1820, said that they inhabit the 
water of the tanks of ‘ parks” in which the oysters are grown 
in such immense abundance, at certain seasons of the year, that 
they can only be compared to the grains of dust which rise in 
clouds and obscure the air in dusty weather. Dr. Johnson, 
speaking of the French oysters, says, that in order to communt- 
cate to them a green color, which, as with us (in England), en- 
hances their value in the market and in the estimation of the 
epicure, they are placed for a time in tanks or “ parks,” formed 
in particular places near high-water mark, and into which the 
sea can be admitted at pleasure by means of sluices; the water 
being kept shallow and left at rest is favorable to the growth 
of the green Canverve and Ulve ; and with these there are gen- 
erated at the same time innumerable crustaceous animalcules 
which serve the oysters for food, and tincture their flesh with the 
desirable hue. 
At any rate, without criticising the allusions to the crustacean 
food of the oyster, these observations give us some hints regard- 
ing the advantages arising from the cultivation of oysters in 
more or less stagnant water, in which, as in the French parks, or 
claires, an abundance of microscopic life would be generated in 
consequence of a nearly uniform temperature, higher in the 
early autumn months at least than the waters of the open sea, 
where coldcurrents would alsotend to make it still less uniform 
and thus interfere with the generation of the minute food of the 
oyster. In other words, it would appear that the effect of the 
French method is to furnish the best conditions for the rapid 
and constant propagation of an immense amount of microscopic 
food well adapted to nourish the oyster. That, unlike oysters 
exposed to a rapid flow of water on a bottom barren of life, they 
grow and quickly come into a saleable condition. 
In this country narrow coves and inlets with comparatively 
shallow water appear to furnish the best conditions for the nu- 
trition and growth of oysters ; and according to my own experi- 
ence these are the places where we actually find minute animal 
and vegetable life in the greatest abundance, and, as might have 
been expected, the oysters planted in such situations appear to 
be in good condition early in the autumn, long before those 
