OYSTER-CULTURE IN FRANCE. 
367 
NATURAL OYSTER BANKS AND DREDGING. 
On the French side of the British Channel the natural oyster beds, or u banks,” 
as they have been termed from their original mound-like form, have been struggling 
to regain their prosperity, aided by the stringent regulations governing the dredging. 
At favorable points, as at Granville, Cancale, and St. Malo, they have again become 
valuable. As supplying the general market, however, their importance is little to be 
compared with that of artificial culture. Where the natural banks become of the 
utmost importance is in the regions of productive oysters, as giving the seed oysters 
for surrounding areas. Here their reservation is made most absolute, their limits are 
determined and guarded, and their condition from time to time examined by careful 
dredging. In general, government assumes the management of the natural beds, 
prescribes how, when, and by whom dredging may be carried on, and enforces the 
law that oysters under the standard size shall be sorted out from the dredge and be 
at once returned to the water. 
As to the banks aud the dredging, the natural banks have originally clustered 
around a series of half-buried rocks and have spread out by the acre as the oysters 
have become detached. The bank depends naturally for its shape upon the character 
of the bottom and upon currents; in general, however, it lengthens out irregularly 
coastwise. Some of the most important banks exist far out from shore, located upon 
reefs or flats in water of 20 or 30 feet, or even deeper. Others exist in clusters but a 
few rods from shore and are uncovered at low tide. 
Dredging within prescribed limits is, as at Cancale, granted so seldom that such 
occasions have become like holidays.* The chaloupes (3 to 10 tons) are drawn up 
ready for work and the beach is filled with spectators. At a cannon shot the little 
vessels start as in a regatta (see Plate lxix, Fig. 1), each striving to be first on the 
ground. The dredges, four or five to a boat, are operated by half a dozen fishers. 
A cannon shot closes the dredging and the little fleet returns shoreward, usually well 
laden. The vessels are now beached, and the cargo is thrown out upon the sand as 
the tide descends. The mass of oysters is at once attacked by women and children, 
who sort the oysters out in regard to size and place them in oblong wicker baskets 
(Plate lxix, Fig. 2). The oysters may now be sold for elevage in the slightly freshened 
waters of the neighboring parks. 
Here, as elsewhere, the dredged oyster must be fattened to gain for it a favorable 
market price, since it is poor in flesh, dark in color, and as yet little able to bear the 
fatigues of transport. 
The operation of dredging would be regarded by our Connecticut culturists as of 
a most primitive character. Hand labor is economical and prevails, and the entire 
dredge net is often of hempen cord. The dredge iron is curiously light in construc- 
tion, braced all about with soft iron rods ; the month is nearly 6 feet in width ; its broad 
lower brim is bent abruptly downward to scrape the bottom at an angle of 45°. 
* The time allowed for the dredging of the natural banks during the past year has, I have been 
told, averaged between two and three hours. 
