KNIGHT — ON OYSTER- CULTURE. 47 



almost insiguificant. They had killed the fowl for the sake of 

 the golden eggs ! 



This basin at high tide has the appearance of a small interior 

 sea of about 100 kilometres (57 miles) in circumference, partak- 

 ing of the flow and ebb of the ocean. It furnishes two sorts of 

 oyster grounds — the crassats, or exposed lands, and the elienals 

 (channels), which are never exposed. It appears that two pro- 

 minent causes of the decline of the oyster fishery in this basin, 

 were the accumulation of mud on the neglected banks, which is 

 destructive to the oysters, and the ravages from the Bigornian 

 borers (JSTassa reticulata — (whelks) BuccinidaB), which are so 

 numerous, that in a single tide of two ho ursy twelve sailors of the 

 government vessel have taken at a season when they are most 

 aJ)undant, (March), 14,600 of them in a spacis of 40 hectares (20 

 acres). (M. Soubeiran remarks in a? foot note, that the smallest 

 Bigorneaux, placed upon shells garnished with 15 to 20 young 

 of the oyster, pierce them' one after another, and do not quit the 

 shell until they have finished the last. They pierce in a half 

 hour an oyster of one month ; they are more formidable even 

 than the adult Bigomeaux, which take eight hours to perforate- 

 the shell of an oyster of three years, and which do not make war 

 upon oysters of a greater size.) 



The oyster grounds are thus described : — " Upon the half o^f 

 this vast bay, on the eastern side, are seen about a hundred 

 floating habitations, above each of which rises a column of smoke 

 like that from the chimney of a little steamboat. These are 

 {pontons) which serve for the lodging of the keepers of the' 

 oyster depots. Ordinarily they are* located in the centre of t&ese 

 narrow but rich domains, composed of about (4 hectares) two- 

 acres. A buoy bearing the number of the depot or claim, painted' 

 large so as to be easily seen, in white on a black ground, is 

 placed at one of the extremities of each proprietary, and remain 

 visible at high water. Stakes of branches of pine, distributed 

 from point to point, and describing either circles, or irregular 

 rectangular figures, fix the limits of each park." 



Towards restoring the oyster-fisheries of Arcachon to their 

 ancient fertility, the Government, upon the suggestion of 

 M. Coste, established experimental or model paries at three 



