of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
219 
than on the successfully-tried bed system. There is one question, however, 
which most advocates for Scottish bouchots avoid, viz., the costs of French 
and Scottish bouchots. 
It may be asked, Why do the French employ the bouchot rather than 
the bed system 1 Many persons are under the impression that all mussels 
are obtained in France from bouchots. This is a mistake, as mussels are 
obtained in France from beds as well as from bouchots. The reason why 
in such places as the Bay of Aiguillon bouchots are employed for mussel 
growing, is that only on this system can mussels be reared in this locality. 
The mud is so soft, and the shores are so flat, that mussel-beds are an 
impossibility. Though mussels are constantly lost from the aeons, as 
they are being transjDorted ashore, or from bouchot to bouchot, in a short 
time all that is seen of them is only the empty shells, which a little rill 
lays bare as it carves out for itself a channel through the mud. Mussels 
lost from the aeons are almost immediately silted up by the very soft 
mud, and the inevitable result is death to the molluscs. The softness or 
hardness of the mud depends, again, on the neighbouring rocks which 
have undergone denudation and supply the mud. Purely argillaceous 
rocks will supply much softer material than will argillaceous rocks with a 
mixture of arenaceous material in them. So will an argillaceous lime- 
stone supply softer material than any rocks containing arenaceous matter. 
This softness is emphasized when it is remembered that progress over 
these mud banks at Aiguillon is impossible except by means of the aeon 
or mud-boat. 
Eighteen months ago I went into the question of costs for the erection 
of bouchots at Aiguillon and in Scotland. The costs of the French 
bouchots were obtained on the spot ; the costs of material for a bouchot 
at Port-Glasgow were obtained from a very large buyer of natural wood 
vu the west of Scotland. The French posts cost at Esnandes 1 fr. 20 c. 
each, and each bundle of wattling, containing twelve branches, costs 20 c. 
The Scottish posts cost 2s. 3d. each, and wattles Is. per cwt. The prime 
cost for material for a bouchot of sixty-nine posts is therefore as follows: — 
French. Scottish. 
69 posts at 1 fr. 20 c, . 82 fr. 80 c. 69 posts at 2s. 3d., £7 15 3 
60 bundles wattling at 20 c, 12 fr. 0 c. SOcwt.wattlingatls., 2 10 0 
Total, . . 94 fr. 80 c. £10 5 3 
What therefore costs £3, 15s. in France costs £10, 5s. 3d. in Scotland, 
i.e., the prime cost for material in Scotland is exactly three times the 
cost for material in France. In the comparison from the point of costs 
of material which I instituted, I started with the supposition — calling it 
a sanguine hypothesis — of mussel cultivation on the bouchot system 
being approximately equally as successful in Scotland as in France at the 
Bay of Aiguillon, and concluded that the selling price of mussels in Scot- 
land would require to be three times greater than in France. After an 
interval of more than a year the comparison still obtains, with this 
difference, that my sanguine hypothesis has been proved to be too 
sanguine. That nothing like the same beneficial results can be looked for 
in Scotland as accrue in France is now becoming apparent. One thing at 
least is shown, that the past season's experience at the St Andrews 
bouchot do«'S not support the hypothesis. Besides, the hypothesis was 
stat(Hl after a recognition of the dilference of the climatal conditions of a 
vine-growing land iuid of our more inhospitable country, and a recognition 
of the differences of temperature of the Hay of Jiiscay and of the North 
Sea. 
