DISCOVEKY OF MUSSEL-PAEMING. 281 



All around him, however, as Walton soon perceived, was 

 one vast expanse of liquid mud, and what could any man do on 

 such a barren field 1 Walton speedily solved the problem. He 

 first of aU invented a mode of travelling upon the mud-bed, for 

 walking was an impossibility, as at every step he sank up to 

 the knees in the miry clay. This boat is called a pirogue by the 

 boueholiers, and it is still in use. By means of this simple 

 machiue, which I will by and by describe, Walton was able to 

 travel along and explore the muddy coast, by which he found 

 out that vast numbers of land and sea birds used to assemble 

 on the waters and in the mud in search of food. A kind of 

 purse-net for the capture of these birds at once suggested itself 

 to the hungry sailor. This being made and set on the mud as 

 a trap to float with the tide, was found to answer admirably, 

 and every night large numbers of aquatic birds were captured 

 in its purse-like folds. It was out of that little example of a 

 destitute sailor's ingenuity that the present industry of Aigmllon 

 was developed, for it was not long before Walton found the 

 strong posts to which he had afiBxed his net all covered over 

 with the spawn of the edible mussel ; these he found grew very 

 rapidly, and when mature, had a much finer flavour than the 

 mud-grown bivalves from whence the spawn had floated. The 

 Irishman soon saw how he could multiply his own food-supplies, 

 and create at the same time a lasting industry for the benefit 

 of the poor people among whom he had been thrown by his 

 unfortunate shipwreck ; he therefore went on multiplying his 

 stakes, tUl he found that there was no end to the produce ; so 

 that in due time this accidental discovery became a rich 

 inheritance to the fisher-folks of the district, for in ten years 

 after the shipwreck the bay was covered with an appropriate 

 and successful mussel-coUecting apparatus, out of which has 

 grown the present extensive commerce. 



The work of cultivation at Aiguillon is carried on very 

 systematically. I shall give what I learned about it, just as I 

 saw it myself, or as it was descflbed to me by my guide, a very 

 civil and 'immensely voluble fisherman, who had the whole 

 theory and practice of mussel-farming at his finger-ends, or 

 rather at the end of his tongue. It was truly curious to con- 

 sider that the same mode of cultivating and working was going 

 on that had prevailed from the beginning — the invention having 

 been perfect from the first. One of the most curious phases of 

 the whole industry is the mode of progression over the fields 



