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 gathered 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 Ré and Oleron, where there had been formerly 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 sprung 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 was 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 
