46 KNIGHT ON OYSTER CULTUEE. 



cessful, that in the course of a year he was able to sell £6 worth 

 of oysters from his stock. He continued to increase the dimen- 

 ;sions of his farm, so that by 1862 his sales had increased to £40. 

 Boeuf's neighbours witnessing his good fortune, soon ceased to 

 ridicule his enthusiasm, and began to cultivate for themselves. 

 The system soon extended over the foreshore of the island, so 

 much so, that what were formerly a series of enormous and 

 unproductive mudbanks, occupying a stretch of shore of about 

 four leagues in length, are idow so transformed, and the whole 

 place so changed, that it s«ems the work of a miracle. This 

 island, which may be designated the capital of French oyster- 

 dom, has now 4000 fish-farms upon its shores, more than 

 all the rest of the coast put together, and the people may be 

 :seen as busy in their fish parks as the market gardeners in the 

 environs of a populous city. 



The marked success that had attended the efibrts of these 

 pioneers in the art of oyster-culture, stimulated the friends of 

 national industry, with the aid of the government, to apply the 

 ■experiment to the restoration of the old oyster grounds, which 

 had seriously declined in their yield. The most important of 

 these were in the Basin of Arcachon on the south-west coast of 

 France, in the Golfe de Gascoigne or Bay of Biscay, situated 

 about 100 miles south of the famous lie de Re. It is upon 

 the subject of the revival of the oyster fisheries in this locality, 

 that the pamphlet I have referred to treats. The basin of 

 Arcachon had produced from time immemorial considerable 

 quantities of oysters, greatly esteemed owing to the peculiarity 

 of the soil upon which they were propagated. *' For many 

 years," remarks M. Soubeiran, " the Basin of Arcachon Avas 

 the Eldorado of oysters. The basin contributed amply to the 

 wants of the country ; and numerous vessels were employed in 

 transporting them to neighboring countries. But by reason 

 of trespass during the spawning time, when dredging was 

 prohibited by the laws, and by reason of furnishing oysters 

 to all France, England, Holland, and other countries, they had 

 exhausted the mine which they thought to be inexhaustible ; and 

 in consequence, suddenly (in literal French, un beau jour — one 

 fine day) they found the harvest so diminished as to become 



