116 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



one claire may have been stagnating and evaporating for 

 a week or more while the neighbouring pond may have 

 been freshened by a canal from the estuary of the Seudre 

 an hour or two before. In most cases the water is ad- 

 mitted at spring tides only. 



The large canal leading towards Marennes had sp. gr. 

 T016 and temperature 70 °F., while several neighbouring 

 claires had their sp. gr. about 1*027 and temperatures of 

 78°F., 82°F., and 85°F. respectively. 



The oysters laid down in claires of the Marennes and 

 La Tremblade neighbourhoods are obtained from Arca- 

 chon. They may be bought by the eleveurs when they 

 are from 18 months to 2 years old, and may be fattened, 

 greened and ready for the market by the end of the 

 following autumn. 



POINTE LE CHAPUS. 



I was disappointed in not seeing Mons. Grenier at 

 Bourcefranc, but went on to Pt. le Chapus to see the 

 claires, the oyster pares on the beach and the basin of 

 degorgement (see PL II, figs. 2, 3, and 6). 



The oyster enclosures on the beach, which is just at 

 the mouth of the estuary of the Seudre on the Straits of 

 Maumusson, are very primitive. They extend over the 

 greater part of the muddy gravel shore as exposed at low 

 tide, and are merely rude enclosures surrounded by low 

 banks of stones heaped together to about one foot in 

 height. The oysters are laid out in these pares and are 

 attended to at low tide by men and women. There are 

 also at Pointe le Chapus certain enclosures of smaller 

 size on the shore in which mussels are placed to fatten 

 and to be protected till they are wanted. These mussel 

 preserves are areas of about 10 yards square and one foot 

 in depth, and the floor is of firm mud. Probably these 

 enclosures are of considerable use in protecting the large 



