of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
213 
The origin of the boiichots was a lucky hit due to the invention of an 
Ivishnian, Walton, who was shipwrecked in the thirteenth century, and 
who, for means of subsistence, set up poles on which to hang nets to 
catch some of the numerous sea birds which frequented the vast stretches 
of mud of the Bay of Aiguillon. The poles, which were set up for the 
capture of birds in their flight by night, were found to be clothed with 
mussels. This fact of the adherence of mussels to poles is well known 
to the dwellers on our coasts, the rocks and piles of piers being covered 
with mussel spat ; and at various places in Scotland the joung mussels 
are transferred to ground where they will more rapidly grow and fill 
up. A further fact is also recognised, that mussels which are attached 
in this way seldom attain by growth either a large size or an elegant 
form if they are left to remain in this position on rocks or posts. It 
is to the recognition of these two facts that all mussel culture is due, 
whether on the bed or bouchot system. 
What is a bouchot ? The answer to this question, sometimes put by 
fishermen and those connected with the fishing industry, is simple. The 
bouchot is an arrangement of posts fixed into the ground of the fore- 
shore destined for the collection of mussel spat, and for the attachment 
of older mussels for growth and fattening. Five kinds of bouchots are 
distinguished at Aiguillon occupying different zones, i.e., at varying levels, 
but these may ultimately be reduced to two — viz., (1) bouchots for the 
collection of spat, and (2) bouchots for the growth and fattening of 
mussels. 
1. Bouchots for the collection of mussel spat. These are situated 
farthest from the shore, and consist of a series of posts almost 12 
feet in length, driven for half their length into mud. This is the size 
at Aiguillon, where the posts are small trunks of trees from 6 to 12 
inches in diameter, and they are set at a distance of from 18 to 24 
inches from each otlier. Except at the greatest spring tides these are 
never, for their entire length, completely dry at low water. They are 
generally set at right angles to the shore, or in the directions from which 
the greatest forces come. In this way they present a much greater 
resistance to the sea, as they are in the line of the greatest waves. Their 
length, in a measure, depends on the height to which the tides of the 
particular locality rise, and the distance to which they are driven, bv 
means of mallets, into the ground depends on the nature of the sub-soil — 
whether, for example, mud continues for a great depth, or whether it is 
soon succeeded by sand or by clay. The rows of posts at Aiguillon are 
separated from each other by intervals of 25 to 50 yards, and each 
row is composed of about 300 to 350 posts. 
This outer zone of bouchots is known as the Bouchot d'avaJ. Its 
function is for the collection of the free-swimming larvae which the ripe 
sexual mussels of the more shoreward bouchots have emitted. The 
mussel larv£e, like the oyster larv£e, lead a pelagic existence for a short 
time after quitting the maternal mantle, and they attach themselves 
by means of the silken-like threads which are spun by the byssus organ. 
The byssus secretions, on being exuded from the byssus gland, which 
lies on the posterior surface of the small foot, harden like tlie secretions 
from the Spider's spinneret, and become thread-like, firmly anchoring the 
young mussel or spat to the posts. The spat begins to settle on the 
posts in the end of spring and beginning of summer, and by autumn 
they have attained the size of haricot beans, when they arj fit to be 
removed to the higher bouchots. 
Generally at Esnandes from two to five zones or rows of barq, or 
Bouchot d'avat, posts succeed each other in longitudinal line, successive 
