214 
Part III. — Ninth Annual Eeport 
zones or rows being separated from one another by water-ways of about 
25 yards in breadth. In October when I visited the boucbots, the posts 
were gradually becoming stripped of their carpeting of mussel spat. So 
thick was this carpeting that half a dozen layers of young mussels were 
superposed on one another, and but for a timely removal to another 
place the upper layer of smaller mussels would asphixiate or starve the 
lower layers of larger spat. 
2. Boucbots for the growth and fattening of mussels succeed shore- 
wards the spat collectors or Bouchots cVaval. At present the mussel 
fishermen (houcheleurs) of the Bay of Aiguillon, in addition to Bouchots 
d^aval, distinguish four kinds of bouchots — viz., (a) Bouchots hatisse ; 
(b) Bouchots du has; (c) Bouchots hatards; (d) Bouchots d'amont. These 
several bouchots may be treated together as they differ from one 
another only in regard to their relative situation. They succeed each 
other shore wards in the order above mentioned, the Bouchots batisse 
being next the Bouchots d'aval, while the Bouchots d'amont are the 
nearest to the shore. 
At Esnandes the number of zones of all the bouch6ts vary from twelve 
to seventeen as follows : — Bouchdts d'aval^ two to five; hatisse, two; has, 
two; batard, four; amo7it, two to four. The farthest poles of the Bouchot 
d^aval are about 3 miles from the shore. This gives one a good indica- 
tion of the extent of the flat mud banks which border the southern 
shores of the Bay of Aiguillon, and the distance of low-water mark 
from high- water mark during the height of spring tides. Though the 
tide tbbs for this distance opposite Esnandes, on the south of Point 
St Clement the tide does not recede so far, as the dip of the shore is 
greater at Marsilly than at Esnandes or Charron. Consequently, the 
bouchot system is more developed opposite the last two places than 
opposite the first-mentioned place. 
The posts of these four kinds of bouchots are much the same in thick- 
ness as those of the Bouchots d^aval, but they are not so closely set 
together in the former as in the latter case. The difference in distance 
of the posts of both kinds of bouchots amounts to about 1 foot. When 
we keep in view the fact that the bare posts of the Bouchots d'aval act 
simply as spat collectors, and that the greater the number of posts the 
larger the extent of the collecting surface, and the fact that the posts of 
the other bouchots are clothed with a species of basket-work or clayon- 
nacje, and that the extra distance of the posts from one another does not 
greatly alter the extent of surface for the attachment of mussels, we per- 
ceive the reason. Not only are fewer posts required, but the clayonnage 
is easier made, and the costs of construction and repair are less. 
The clayonnage, or basket-work, is made by working flexible branches 
round the posts in the same way as basketraakers intertwine twigs, fresh 
or dried, round the ribs of the basket. The branches which are used for 
this interlacing, alternately on one side of a post, and on the other of the 
next post, are what is known in some parts of Scotland as ' suckers,' i.e., 
branches which contain a great quantity of sap in them when uncut, and 
which are very flexible, and so can be bent easily between the posts. 
Tliey vary in length from 12 to 18 feet, and at the thick end are from 1 
to 2 inchp.s in diameter, thinning very gradually to a sharp point. There 
is always an interval of from 6 to 12 inches, or sometimes even more, at 
the bottom above the mud, where no branches are interlaced round the 
posts. This is to prevent the accumulation of mud at the bottom of the 
posts, which otherwise would rapidly silt up the bouchdts. It serves to 
permit of the currents flowing freely ; and along the line of the bouchot 
posts there is always more or less of a current running outwards during 
