Oysters and other Edible Mollusca. 137 



generated which now covers it, and at some future day will 

 be a source of great wealth. 



The first deposit made consisted of 500,000 oysters, 

 and near them 10,000 large hollow earthen tubes were 

 so placed and piled up as to afford a desirable stopping- 

 place for the young vagabond oysters, the birth of which 

 was expected. Notwithstanding partial failures, unavoid- 

 able in all such totally new enterprises, the park of 

 Lahellon, with its appendages, was estimated to have pro- 

 duced, in 1868, 50,000,000 oysters, which is much more 

 than the rest of the bay contained in its 40,000 acres' 

 surface. 



It is reckoned that the net increase of the receipts from 

 oysters alone in France is rather over ;^300,ooo a year. All 

 down the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from Brest to the 

 Gironde, the shores are studded with artificial beds belong- 

 ging to private individuals, but regularly and rigidly in- 

 . spected by Government. The population of the islands of 

 Re and Oleron in particular are entirely supported by the 

 oyster beds. 



Auray in Brittany is, next to Arcachon, the seat of the 

 most important of all French oyster fisheries. There is 

 one establishment in the Auray district— that of M. d'Argy, 

 at Le Breneguy, near Locmariaquer — which comprises 

 about 100 acres in a single enclosure, private property, 

 and about 12 hectares outside, in addition, between the 

 enclosure and the sea. The 100 acres now forming this 

 great oyster-pond were in 1 864 part of a farm belonging to 

 M. d'Argy, and divided in the usual way into fields. In 

 that year the sea broke in, and submerged it, causing, as it 

 was thought at the time, great destruction of property. 

 The proprietor, however, eventually determined some time 

 ago to form it into an oyster-tank, and, by means of sub- 

 7 



