Oyster Culture in England. 195 
Having thus far examined the parc of the company laid 
down and stocked with old oysters on the Lake Fusaro 
principle, let us turn to the farce laid down and stocked on 
the French principle of the Ile de Re. 
Here the results are not so decisive, nor can it be said 
so satisfactery, as regards the production of spat alone. 
The area of water is greater than in the Fusaro Lake, is 
carefully divided into ponds, each carefully coated at the 
bottom with shingle, and the water, as we have before ob- 
served, is constantly, but not violently, moving. The beds 
were stocked with 200,000 oysters, and the tiles laid down 
as “collectors” of the spat. At the present time there is, 
as yet, no spat in any part of these beds worth notice, 
although the number of oysters laid down is exactly four- 
fold that of the other farc, where the spat has been, and 
still continues, so plentiful. There is this important fact, 
however, which must be taken into consideration—the 
oysters in this parc were not laid down until nearly a 
month after those in the Fusaro parc, and this may pos- 
sibly account for the remarkable difference in the two. 
But there is also one other remarkable condition, which 
must be given its due weight in any consideration of the 
difference in the exhibition of spat in the two parcs. The 
pump to which reference has been made, as pumping a 
portion of the water, on its way through the gutway from 
the first farvc to the second, lifts this water into a large 
slate tank, whose overflow joins the other water from the 
gutway, and supplies the Ile de Ré parc. Now, with re- 
gard to the deposit of spat, the main facts for considera- 
tion in the present case are these :—1. The Fusaro pare, 
with its 50,000 oysters, and its generally still water, has 
given, and is still giving, an enormous quantity of spat. 
2. In the running water of the gutway, which connects the 
two parcs, the hurdles which have been placed there show 
but very insignificant signs of spat. 3. The same water 
pumped into the large slate tank, and lying there in perfect 
stillness, has deposited millions of oysterlings on the sides 
of the tank, which are flourishing wonderfully. 4. In the 
Ile de Ré beds, or parc, through which all the water passes, 
and where the water is constantly, though gently moving, 
no spat of consequence has been deposited either from the 
water running into it from the Fusaro parc, by the gutway, 
by the pumped overflow of the tank, or from the 200,000 
oysters with which the Ile de Ré is stocked. 
The company are also engaged in preparing a portion of 
