of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
215 
ebb tide and inwards during the flowing tide. This prevents the accumu- 
lation of mud, which is so easily gathered on mussel ground. 
While this portion of the bouchot posts is bare, the upper part, almost 
to the lop, is covered by the interwoven branches. The branches are 
laid on the top of one another, succeeding branches going round opposite 
sides of the same post, and the thin ends of the branches alternate with 
the thick ends of the branches above and below. In this way a very 
substantial structure is made, where the surface of the post may be com- 
pared to the base of a triangle, while the branches on both sides of the 
post form the legs of the triangle, the apex of which is midway to the 
next post. Tiie larger the branches are the greater is the number of posts 
through which they can be laced. In actual construction the thick end 
of the branch is always fixed first, the thin and more flexible end is then 
intertwined round the posts. The branches of the basket-work, or clayon- 
nage, are not always packed as closely as can be done ; the same result s 
attained by loose as by close packing. 
The form in which the bouchots were formerly constructed was V-shape, 
with the apex pointed seawards ; but the prevailing form is now in 
parallel lines, though an odd bouchot here and there still retains the 
V-shape. As in the Bouchots d'aval, similar intervals are left between 
each bouchdt to form water-ways for the passage of boats used by the 
houcheleurs. To indicate ownership, the outer post of the bouchot has a 
board with a number upon it. 
As to the mode of working the bouchots, the posts of the Bouchots 
d^avcd^ about the month of February, or before the spat is ready to be 
affixed to the posts, are scraped bare of the barnacles and other animal 
and vegetable growths. This gives the young mussel spat a clean surface 
for attachment, otherwise the quantity of spat obtainable would be very 
much lessened for the want of a sufficient space for resting-placei. This 
periodic cleaning, therefore, ensures a greater amount of mussel seed for 
stocking the wattled posts of the other bouchdts. 
When the spat, which has attained the size of haricot beans, is 
removed from the Bouchots d'aval, it may be enclosed in little bags made 
of netting, or the bunches may be placed directly on the wattling. 
Where the bunches can readily be placed between the posts and branches, 
or can be squeezed between the branches, this is done directly ; but there 
are always certain places to cover where this cannot be done. In this 
case the bunches are enclosed in netting, which is tied on to the wattles. 
The netting gradually rots, but not till long after the mussels are securely 
fixed — as also happens in the former case — by their byssus threads to 
their new position. 
The farther up the shore the mussels are transferred the longer is the 
time during each tide that they are uncovered. The usual procedure is, 
therefore, not to remove the mussels further shoreward than the state of 
the stocking of the bouchots demand. First, the Bouchots batisses are 
stocked, then the Bouchots du has, and so on. The most shoreward 
bouchdts are generally used for the mussels which have plrpady been 
transferred some time previously from the Bouchots d'avcd to the lower 
wattled posts. The mussels from the Bouchots d^amont, therefore, stand 
land transport much better than do tlie mussels from the more seaward 
bouchots; and it is also said that they improve in quality the higher up 
they are on the posts, though this may be acce[)ted with caution. 
One noticeable feature at the Bay of Aiguillon, even in quiet weather, 
is the great amount of mud which the water carries in suspension. The 
mud is HO deep on the bottom that progress by walking is impossible. 
This was the case so far back as the days of Walton. He consequently 
