OYSTER AND MUSSEL REPORT. 129 



use of the traps saved time and labour as it allowed them 

 to use the fish trawl at the same time. Another fisher- 

 man, however, assured me that he preferred the traps to 

 a shrimp trawl, that they gave much better results. They 

 say that it is not very much use setting the traps in 

 summer as they only catch very small shrimps then. The 

 best time of the year they say is in January and February. 

 None of the boats were using the traps at the time I was 

 there (middle of July). The value of the shrimps caught 

 varies from 30,000 to 60,000 francs annually. 



Another object of fishery interest I saw at Croisic was 

 the " vivier " which they are in the habit of making out 

 of their old fishing boats. They make certain slits in the 

 sides between the planks, put on a deck of sparwork, and 

 several partitions in the interior so as to divide it up into 

 about four compartments through which the water flows 

 readily, and in these aquaria they keep their stock of 

 lobsters and " langousts." The " viviers " float deep in 

 the water, and are to be seen moored in various parts of 

 the entrance to the harbour and inland sea. 



General Conclusions. 

 There is no doubt that there are great and flourishing 

 shellfish industries along the west coast of France ; and 

 one thing that struck me very forcibly was the admirable 

 manner in which the people seem to make the best of 

 unfavourable conditions and to take advantage of every 

 opportunity given to them by nature. Few places on 

 any coast, I fancy, could look more desolate, hopeless and 

 forbidding than the vast mud swamps of the Bay of 

 Aiguillon, and yet by means of the bouchot system many 

 square miles of this useless ground have been brought 



