364 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
wholesome tood. In order to trace the ameliorative process by whi® 
the coriaceous flesh of the mussel was rendered tender, fat, and eve® 
savoury, we must conduct the reader back into the middle ages. 
Some time in 1 236 a barque, freighted with sheep and manned by 
three Irishmen, came to grief upon the rocks in the creek of AiguiH 011 ’ 
a few miles from Rochelle. The neighbouring fishermen who ca®' e 
to the relief of the crew succeeded with great difficulty in saving ^ 
life of the master, a man named Walton. Exiled upon the l° ut ^' 
shore of the Aunis, with a few sheep saved from shipwreck, Wa^ 011 
at first supported himself by hunting sea-fowl, which frequented 
shore and neighbouring marshes in vast flocks. He was a ski® B 
fowler, and invented or adapted a peculiar kind of net, which he cal* e ^ 
the night net. This consisted of a net some three or four hun<h e 
yards in length by'three in breadth, which he placed horizontal' 
like a screen, along the quiet waters of the bay, retaining it h 1 ^ 
position by means of posts driven into the muddy bottom. In 
obscurity of the night the wild-fowl, in floating along the surface 0 
the waters, would come in contact with the net, and get themself 
entangled in its meshes. 
But the Bay of Aiguillon was only a vast lake of mud, in wl® c 
boats moved with difficulty, and Walton, having arranged his bird-® e ’ 
began to consider what kind of boat would enable him most C ° B 
veniently to navigate this sea of mud. The flat-bottomed, sfl ufU L ( 
sided boat, known in our rivers as a punt, and on the Norman ^ 
as an aeon, was the result. Walton’s boat had a wooden frame so® 10 
Rich 
ale- 
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m# r 
three yards long and one in breadth and depth, the fore part of 
sloped down into the water, in the form of a prow, at a slight a®? 
In propelling the boat the rower, who occupied the stern of the p uB |’ 
knelt on his right knee (as represented in Fig. 149), inclining for^ ' 
with one hand on each edge, and the left leg outside the boat, 
vigorous push with the left foot gave the frail boat an impulse, 
which it rapidly traversed the bay from one point to the other. , 
ark ed 
oflt 
little above the mud, and that those so placed soon became fetter, ^ 
well as more agreeable to the taste, than those buried in the mud. 
saw in this peculiarity the elements of a sort of mussel culture 
might become a new branch of industry. “ The practices he m 
The mussels swarmed in the little bay ; and Walton soon remar 
that they attached themselves by preference to that part of his p° s ^ 
