284 MUSSEL CULTURE, 



great strong -wooden stakes twelve feet long, and of considerable 

 girth. These axe sunk into the mud to a depth of six feet, the 

 upper portion being the receptacle of a garniture of strong but 

 supple branches, twisted in the form of basket work, on which 

 are grown the annual 'crops of mussels. The bouchots have 

 different names, according to their uses and their situation. 

 The houehots du has are those farthest away in the water : 

 these are very seldom left uncovered by the tide; they are 

 formed of very large and very strong solitary stakes, planted so 

 near each other that there are three of them to each mfetre. 

 The duty of these stakes is to enact the part of spat-collectors 

 — the Bpat is locally called naissain at the Port of Esnandes — 

 so that there may be always a store of infant mussels for the 

 peopling and repeopling of such of the palisades as may accident- 

 ally become barren. My guide, in describing to me the oper- 

 ations of the farm, used agricultural terms, such as seeding, 

 planting, transplanting, replanting, etc., and he told me that 

 operations of some kind are continually going on all over the 

 farm. When it is not seed or harvest time, the bouchots have 

 to be repaired or the canoes mended. 



As near as I could understand, the spat of the natural 

 mussel which voluntarily fixed itself to the outer rows of posts, 

 attains about February or March to the size of a grain of flax- 

 seed. In May the young mussels are about as big as a lentil, 

 and in about two months more they wiU attain to the dimensions 

 of a haricot bean — ^the men of Esnandes then call the mussel a 

 rmowielain — which is the proper time for the planting to begin ; 

 and this operation was in progress during my visit. It is 

 simple but effective. When a few canoe-loads of these young 

 mussels are required for the seeding of the more inland bouchots, 

 the men proceed to the single or collecting stakes at the lowest 

 state of the tide, armed with long poles, having blunt hooks at 

 the end, by means of which they scrape off the seedlings. The 

 men do not, however, scrape off more of the mussels than they 

 require for the operation in hand, which must be completed 

 before the flow of the next tide. Having filled a few baskets, 

 each man paddles his canoe to the seat of work, and there 

 commences the first stage of the work or planting, which is 

 effected in a curious but characteristic way, the operation being 

 • called to h&tism by, those engaged in it. Taking a good handful 

 of the mussels, they are skilfully tied up by the boucholier in a 

 bag of old netting or canvas, and then deftly fastened in the 



