OVR SEA FISHERIES. 269 



salt-water nurseries and ponds in England used for 

 the rearing of fish, though there is in existence a 

 company, which has, under the able superintendence 

 of Dr. Mitchell, turned its attention to this subject in 

 common with oyster culture, and they are in posses- 

 sion of several small ponds near Southend, which are 

 suitable for the above purposes ; and it is, I believe^ 

 their intention to try what can be done with them in 

 the way of experiment. In France the practice is fol- 

 lowed out to some extent ; and at Concanneau, on the 

 coast of Brittany, there are a series of ponds or viviers 

 hollowed out of the rock in which large quantities 

 of crawfish and other fish are raised and nursed 

 •for the markets, under the excellent management of 

 Mons Guillot. Mr. Lowe speaks in the highest 

 terms of the efficiency and value of these viviers> 

 Such ponds abound around our coasts, and there 



anxiously applied for by the inhabitants of the coast, the more so 

 as improvements in the working of this branch of trade are of daily 

 occurrence. Thus Dr. Kemmerer, of E^, covers a number of tiles 

 ■with a coating of a kind of mastick, brittle enough to enable him to 

 detach the small oysters from it. When this coating is well covered 

 with seed, he gets it off all in one jiiece, which he carries to the 

 place where the seed is to grow. The same tile he coats a second 

 time, and so on, as long aa the seed will deposit upon it. In short, 

 wherever the violence of the currents and the stability of the 

 bottom do not present irresistible obstacles, the cultivation of 

 oysters has become a lucrative business." 



