340 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
spawny progeny in quiet repose ; the young germs are intercepted hy 
the fagots and hurdles suspended between the piles, where the young 
oysters develop themselves under the favourable conditions of repose- 
temperature, and light. When the fishing season arrives, the pd eS 
and fagots which surround the beds are removed, and the oysters are 
gathered suitable for market. The oysters thus selected for sale are 
packed loosely in osier baskots and sunk, while waiting for purchasers, 
into a reserve or park. This park is established on the shores of the 
lake. It is constructed of piles which support a gangway provided 
with hooks, from which the baskets filled with living oysters are 
suspended, ready for sale. 
Some twenty years ago the oyster-beds of France had becom 6 
totally exhausted under the open system of dredging; and circu©' 
stances having brought the protective system pursued at Fusaro under 
the notice of M. Coste, a learned academician, to whom France I s 
indebted for the restoration of the bivalve, M. Coste reported to the 
Emperor in 1858 that at Rochelle, Marennes, Rochefort, at the kd eS 
of Re and Oleron, where there had formerly been twenty-three oyster - ' 
beds, there were now only five, and these in danger of being destroy 1 
by the increase of mussels ; that at the Bay of St. Brieuc, so naturally 
suited for oyster culture, the beds were reduced to three ; that oven 11,1 
the classic oyster grounds of Cancale and Granville, it was only by th e 
most careful administration that decay was prevented, while the & 
creasing numbers of consumers threatened altogether to destroy a ’ x 
industry essentially necessary for the support of a maritime populati 00 ’ 
The impulse given by this report has been productive of the m° st 
satisfactory results in France. All along the coast the maritime pop 11 
lations are actively engaged in oyster culture. Oyster parks, in imh fl 
tion of those of Fusaro, have sprung up. In his appeal to the Empe rtU j, 
M. Coste suggested that the State, through the Administration c 
Marine, and by means of the vessels at its command, should take steps l° r 
sowing the whole French coast in such a manner as to re-establish th® 
oyster-banks now in ruins, extend those which were prosperous, 
create others anew wherever the nature of the bottom would p ellU 
and 
it. 
uished 
The first serious attempt to carry out the views of the distingr 
academician was made in the Bay of St. Brieuc. In the month 
April in the same year in which his report was received, operation 
commenced by planting three millions of mother-oysters which 
