of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
217 
first visited the bouchot I estimated the quantity in stock on it at about 
15 cwt. of mussels, an estimate in which Mr Smith, the manager of the 
St Andrews scalps, agreed. The mussels were fixed to the wattles by 
netting, which in April 1890 was still fresh and good, and it struck me 
at that time it might have been better if the mussels were retained by 
their own unaided byssus threads, so that the effect of winter gales and 
frosts on the mussels might be more exactly determined. 
In Ma}'' 1890, 50 cwt. additional of mussels of varying sizes were 
placed on it. The condition and size of the mussels placed on it were 
noted and compared with the mussels on the beds alongside, in order that 
further comparisons might be made. 
When I last visited it, in April 1891, the most noticeable alteration 
was the great accumulation of mud and the rapid silting up of the arms, 
particularly of the lower arm. To permit of silting, the old V-shape, on 
which plan it was constructed, offers greater advantages than does the 
present shape of bouchot as developed in the Bay of Aiguillon — viz., 
parallel rows of posts. The silting had gone on to such an extent that 
the lower branches of the wattling at the lower ends, and also in the 
middle of the lower arm, were covered by more than a foot deep of mud. 
While this has happened, it must be borne in mind there was the ordinary 
free passage for mud below the wattles, and on the other hand it must be 
noted that the growth of bed mussels, which always tends to heighten 
the banks, had meanwhile been taking place alongside the bouchot. Still, 
if the bouchot had been constructed, not in the old-fashioned V-shape, 
but in the more recent single line, this silting would not have gone on to 
such an extent. 
In addition to the drawback of silting, which has taken place so that 
some of the posts have only 2i- feet of their length above the level of the 
mud, certain portions of the wattling were bared of mussels. This had 
taken place, too, at parts where a good stock had been placed on the 
wattles, and it was particularly noticeable in the lower limb on the out- 
side at the east or open end of the V, and in the upper limb on the inside 
on the higher ground, and on the outside on the lower ground near the 
apex. What was the cause of this stripping of mussels off the wattles 1 
I concluded it must have been the gales from a more or less westerly or 
north-westerly directio!i, as, if it had been frost, the mussels at other 
than these places on the bouchot would have suffered. My conclusion 
was corroborated on inquiry at the mussel fishermen, who daily work on 
the beds alongside. 
In two respects, therefore — silting on the one hand, and the effect of 
gales on the other — the bouchot experiment has not been successful. 
Wherever the tendency to silting of the mud is great, and where the 
currents to carry off the mud are not strong, wattled bouchots offer favour- 
able conditions for the accumulation of mud and heightening of the banks. 
This silting had also, I understand, taken place at a former boucliot 
set up on the banks of the Eden, and will, I believe, take place, except 
where a good current flows along the line of and at the bottom of the 
bouchot posts. 
But even a more interesting question than either of the physical con- 
ditions noted is the biological one as to the growth of the mussel. The 
St Andrews bouchot is fortunately placed alongside of mussel-beds, and 
a comparison may be instituted as to the rate of growth. The bouchot 
has only been under my observation for a year, so, to any opinion ex- 
pressed, only a relative value must be attached. Judgment formed on 
the observation of two or three years of the same structure and its stock 
will effectually settle this point; but, still, at the end of one year's experi- 
