78 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
The season of 1862-63, was not a profitable one ; the 
oysters were sold at 28 francs the thousand, and the 
total profit of the season was 126,000 francs, the small- 
est amount yet known at Granville.* 
An interesting paragraph appeared in the ^Times,^ 
November 13th, 1862, on the cultivation of oysters on 
the western coast of Trance. It is as follows : — “ M. 
Coste has just communicated a paper to the Academy of 
Sciences on the progress of his artificial oyster-beds. 
Several thousands of the inhabitants of the island of 
Re have been for the last four years engaged in cleans- 
ing their muddy coast of the sediments which prevented 
oysters from congregating there, and as the work ad- 
vances, the seed, wafted from Nieulle and other oyster- 
localities, settles in the new beds, and, added to that 
transplanted, peoples the coast ; so that 72,000,000 
of oysters from one to four years old, and nearly all 
marketable, is the lowest average registered per annum 
registered by the local administration, representing, at 
the rate of from 25 to 30 francs per thousand, which is 
the current price in the locality, a sum of about two 
millions of francs, the produce of an extremely limited 
surface. That the waves or currents carry the seed of 
oysters is a well-known fact, since the walls of sluices 
newly erected are often covered with them. In the 
island of Re the existence of the oyster-beds, however, 
no longer depends upon this contingency, they being 
now in a state of permanent self-reproduction. Again, 
in some localities it is sufficient to prepare the emerging 
banks for collection, to see them soon covered with 
seed; but in other places nothing would be obtained 
without transplanting proper subjects. The concession 
* ‘ Illustrated London News.’ 
