OYSTEE AND MUSSEL REPOET. 123 



so that mud can wash through. The seaward rows of 

 bouchots are for the young mussel spat to attach itself to 

 and these alone have no clayonnage, while those further 

 up the shore are for the purpose of growing and fattening 

 the shell-fish on. 



The spatting time there is in early spring and by the end 

 of May the young mussel is the size of a lentil (say yg- inch 

 in length). In July it is about J of an inch in length, and 

 is then ready to be transplanted to the bouchots further up. 

 They are thus gradually moved up the shore as the bouchots 

 require to be thinned, and this process educates them to 

 bear prolonged exposure to air. The bunches of young 

 mussels are detached and are wrapped up in a piece of old 

 net and then stuffed into the clayonnage of the bouchots 

 d'amonts where they may remain for a year until about 

 1J inches long when they are considered ready for 

 market. Before the netting has rotted away the mussels 

 have managed to attach themselves by their byssus 

 threads to the neighbouring branches or to one another. 

 I saw no very large mussels, the finest I saw averaged from 

 2 to 2 J inches in length and were in bunches of 6 to 12, 

 but they certainly seemed to be very abundant. The 

 bouchots looked black with them, and the boucholeurs 

 declared that it was an excellent summer for their industry. 

 The weather was unfortunately so dull that I was 

 unable to take any satisfactory photographs at Charron. 

 The temperature of the water I found to be 73 C F. The 

 water was exceedingly muddy, and the mud as exposed at 

 low tide was so extremely soft that one sank into it at 

 once and it was impossible to traverse it in any way except 

 by means of an aeon. I collected samples of mud from 

 various parts of the shore and from the mussels themselves 

 and these I have now carefully examined. The mud is a 

 very yellow mud, and is extremely smooth and unctuous 



