78 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



The season of 1862-63, was not a profitable one ; the 

 oysters were sold at 28 francs the thousand, and the 

 total profit of the season was 126,000 francs, the small- 

 est amount yet known at Granville.* 



An interesting paragraph appeared in the "Times,^ 

 November 13th, 1862, on the cultivation of oysters on 

 the western coast of France. It is as follows : — " M. 

 Coste has just communicated a paper to the Academy of 

 Sciences on the progress of his artificial oyster-beds. 

 Several thousands of the inhabitants of the island of 

 Re have been for the last four years engaged in cleans- 

 ing their muddy coast of the sediments which prevented 

 oysters from congregating there, and as the work ad- 

 vances, the seed, wafted from Nieulle and other oyster- 

 localities, settles in the new beds, and, added to that 

 transplanted, peoples the coast ; so that 72,000,000 

 of oysters from one to four years old, and nearly all 

 marketable, is the lowest average registered per annum 

 registered by the local administration, representing, at 

 the rate of from 25 to 30 francs per thousand, which is 

 the current price in the locality, a sum of about two 

 millions of francs, the produce of an extremely limited 

 surface. That the waves or currents carry the seed of 

 oysters is a well-known fact, since the walls of sluices 

 newly erected are often covered with them. In the 

 island of Re the existence of the oyster-beds, however, 

 no longer depends upon this contingency, they being 

 now in a state of permanent self-reproduction. Again, 

 in some localities it is sufficient to prepare the emerging 

 banks for collection, to see them soon covered with 

 seed; but in other places nothing would be obtained 

 without transplanting proper subjects. The concession 

 * ' Illustrated London News.' 



