of strong stakes were planted in the Bay of Aiguillon, and these being interlaced with boughs of trees, formed an admirable holdingon place for the mussel spat. In time further improvements were devised, the mussels were transplanted as they grew, the larger sizes always being brought nearer and nearer to the shore, for the greater convenience of the farmers, who send them to all parts of France. A regular system of cultivation is carried on, and the bouchots are very profitable to the fisher folks of Esnandes, who also do a little business in oysters. It was no doubt from a contemplation of this ancient and very peculiar fishing industry that M. Coste, the modern Richelieu, who so far as its fisheries are concerned, is "recreating France," derived many of his ideas of oyster culture, which, consequent on his favourable reports to government, has been greatly encouraged by the Emperor. Not contented with encouraging oyster culture by grants of ground to the people, the Emperor has caused model beds to be set down on various parts of the coast, in order that persons entering upon the business may have sound practical instruction in the art of breeding and cultivation. There are breeders and breeders. There are some who prefer to breed as naturally as possible, and to lay down apparatus to catch the spat, which shall as far as possible be a copy, or imitation at least, of the natural culch or bottom on which the oyster, when it has the opportunity, deposits, under certain circumstances, its spat. Some cultivators again are enamoured of the highly artificial style, and prefer to collect the spat on tiles covered with a thick coating of cement, which can be easily removed; others again prefer faggots, i.e., bundles of twigs nicely bound together with hoops of galvanised wire. But the best oyster farmers prefer to lay down broken crockery, bits of stone, and similar débris, in imitation of the natural bottom, which is, after all, the most preferable receptacle for the spat. The most admirably constructed beds, for the artificial breeding of oysters under government control, are those which have been laid down in the basin of Arcachon, a sheltered arm of the sea, about thirty-five miles from Bordeaux. Arcachon, now a fashionable bathing resort, was at one time a fishing village, celebrated for its abundant supply of naturally bred oysters; the scalps being very extensive, it was thought they could never be exhausted, and thousands of bushels of excellent and well-fed oysters were annually sent from the basin to all parts of France, and to foreign countries as well, so great was the de mand for the far-famed gravettes of Arcachon. After the natural oyster beds had been exhausted by over-dredging, Professor Coste, of the Institute, took a survey of the basin, and very speedily contrived ways and means for its re-habilitation as an oyster farm. He predicted, in his usual enthusiastic fashion, that the 800 hectares of ground in the basin, which were suitable for the growth of oysters, would, after time had been allowed for their proper development, yield an annual revenue not less in amount than ten millions of francs! The professor's prediction must by this time have been, as nearly as possible, realised, the beds being crowded with "natives." The bay, or basin of Arcachon, is exceedingly well adapted for oyster culture; it has a fine gravelly bottom, well suited for the reception of spat and the development of the young mollusc; its waters are comparatively sheltered from the storms of the Bay of Biscay, and the spat has never been known to fail in any season. The professor's report on oyster culture, and his plans for the development of the basin, caused a great sensation throughout France at the time of their promulgation, and eager speculators of all kinds at once applied for concessions of breeding ground-a portion of the bay having been recommended to be let to the public. The maritime population were preferred as tenants, but they had to subscribe to stringent conditions, and agree to cultivate after a particular fashion. There are three government, or imperial oyster beds, in the basin of Arcachon ; these are Lahillon, Grand Ces, and Crastorbe. The first-named of these beds was laid down on the most inappropriate ground, in order to display the cultivation of oysters under difficulties. Its soil was a mere slime, totally unsuitable for the growth of that mollusc; the enemies of the animal were superabundant; and, to crown these disadvantages, there was all over the selected site a luxurious growth of many kinds of marine plants: and to promote the growth of oysters on such ground with a success that would be remunerative was the problem that M. Coste had appointed himself to solve. The tide leaving the ground dry at certain periods, the first labour requiring to be done was to clear away the slime; this was dexterously done, the mud being used in the formation of low flat dykes, which served the double purpose of boundaries and walks. In the course of these operations, not a single native, nor, indeed, any other kind of oyster, was found, although the crasset of Lahillon was always described as a natural oyster-bed. If oysters had ever grown in that portion of the basin, the scalps had first been weakened by overfishing, and finally had been exterminated by an overflow of mud and a copious growth of marine vegetation. The ground selected for the imperial oyster nursery was about nine acres, and the professor, to render it fertile, had it arranged his own way in thirty-four squares, each of which was planted with from 9000 to 30,000 oysters. All kinds of spat collectors were introduced on the Lahillon grounds, and the imperial oyster nursery there established soon became very productive. But the chief spat collector is a wooden structure formed of planks, to which faggots of branches are attached. There was originally a dozen of these collectors laid down, and in addition a large number of smaller collectors were provided, and these wooden apparatuses were supplemented with the tile collectors already alluded to. In the nursery at Lahillon there was at one time, in addition to the natural culch, as many as four hundred artificial or manufactured spat collectors. In fact, it was as much a part of Coste's plan to find out the best artificial spat gatherer as to determine any other natural or economic question in connection with the re-establishment of the oyster fisheries. Oyster hives, as they are called, are therefore conspicuous among the other kinds of apparatus. These hives are simply a series of boxes made of wood, containing perforated drawers filled with natural bottom or culch, so that when the mother oysters emit their spawn it cannot escape. The tile system of collecting the spat has also been successfully tried in the basin of Arcachon; as many as 300 oysters have been stripped off a single tile. The advantage of having tiles covered with cement is obvious, for as soon as the shells have grown to the size of a sixpence or a shilling, the cement is peeled off, the shells adhering, and the tile being recoated with cement, can again be used. It may interest our readers to know that as many as 10,000 infantile oysters may be retained in the space of a cubic metre. The spat mystery may appropriately be alluded to here. In the basin of Arcachon the spat never fails; year after year there is an abundant supply, and what is better, it is secured, and, as has been described, grown into marketable oysters. At home there has been no spat on the Kent or Essex coast to speak of for some years, but there has been a good fall on the newly formed beds at Hayling Island, where may be seen ten acres of ground covered with the young oysters of 1866-7! There has also been an announcement by Mr. Buckland of a fall at some other places, but as three years at least must elapse before the spat becomes a marketable commodity, the fishmongers may be at their wits' end for oysters before that time. Some naturalists have doubted whether oysters yield their spat annually. There need be no doubt of that fact-it has been proved at Arcachon, at Hayling, and in the Frith of Forth. The difficulty lies in protecting the spat from weather influences; it may be washed away, or indeed be destroyed. In the case of the mussel beds we have seen that they were established from travelling spat, also that the oyster beds of Ré were formed from spat washed on shore by the tide. In the Frith of Forth, which is full of fine natural scalps, it is known that large quantities of spat are borne down from the upper beds by tidal influence, and striking against Inchkeith, have formed and yielded valuable supplies of oysters to all who have chosen to gather them-the ground on which they are found being Crown or neutral ground. In the artificial beds at Hayling no difficulty has been experienced in securing the spat. At present there are millions of oysters in beds there, some of them newly spatted, others which are one year and two years old. Besides Lahillon there are other two imperial oyster beds in the basin of Arcachon, Crastorbe occupying a space of thirty acres, and Grand Ces which contains twenty-five acres of superficial area. All kinds of collecting apparatus are laid down in the beds just before the spawning that is from the middle of June to the end of July; these are then protected by fences of various kinds devised to keep out the mud and prevent the intrusion of sea-weed. The oysters selected for spawning purposesand great care is taken to provide the best ones as to shape, size, and general appearance are then placed in and around the various devices or erections. When a spawn has been obtained—and at Arcachon, and indeed everywhere else, the spat falls annually, if not on the natural beds, then somewhere else not ascertained-the oysters are allowed to develop for a few months, after which they are gathered from off the apparatus and placed to grow in the various departments of the ground; the appareils being then taken to pieces are cleaned and laid aside till again wanted, the best kinds being, of course preferred. The grand secret of successful oyster culture is constant work. It is by never-ceasing labour that the dredgers at Whitstable and Essex have brought the natives to perfection. They constantly dredge and re-dredge their layings, separating and classifying the oysters upon each occasion, changing them to different portions of their ground, picking out at the same time all kinds of enemies and dead shells. In the basin of Arcachon work is also the grand motto of all engaged in the industry of an oyster farm. Most of the beds are laid bare at ebb tide, and then the men in charge of the farms who live in floating houses or arks, turn out upon the farm to work as long as the state of the tide will admit-in other words, till the water again covers the ground. Every man engaged in oyster culture has his separate job—one inspects the spat collectors, another gathers in the infant oysters, a third man will distribute these over the different parcs; there are also men who look out for mud, that dire enemy of the mollusc; also men to gather and remove the sea-weed; men to assort the stock and dispose of quantities to be sent to the greening or fattening claires, or for the market. There is a café on one of the islands of the basin, and altogether there is a tolerable population in the bay, all of whom, men, women, and children find, the year round, remunerative employment on the oyster farms. As to the pounds, shillings, and pence of the question, the following figures appertaining to the beds of Lahillon, but which may represent the outlay and income of any large oyster farm, may be relied upon; they have been furnished to the writer by the Abbé Moule of Arcachon: At the end of the first year, there is a value of 171,500 francs, and after deducting a sum (50,000 francs) for unforeseen casualties, there will still remain a balance of 121,500 francs. The 500,000 mother oysters may be sold the second year, but it would certainly be more profitable to leave them another year, and secure a second spawning, which would be worth a hundred times the interest at 10 per cent. on their cost. If the expenses of the first four years be added the account will stand as follows: First year Second year Third year Fourth year 1,500 28,500 Francs. 200 400 2,000 2,600 And deducting the cost of the breeding now turned into cash There will be a balance of which has created a total return of 121,500 in four years, yielding a regular income of 30,000 francs per annum for the whole oyster-bed of ten acres' extent. In the face of an impending oyster famine from the repeated failure of the spat on our chief English beds, these figures must prove interesting to the general public. A bushel of OUR RACE WITH THE MABEL. HE Mabel was a very fast boat. She was oysters, prime natives, cannot now-a-days be built on the Clyde by one of the best obtained under a good round sum-from five to eight pounds. builders on the river, and her model was beautiful. She was cutter-rigged, and everything about her seemed made for going through the water fast. Then she carried enormous sails. Her mast seemed to tower up into the air, like a very high steeple on a very small church. Her mainsail boom alone would have done as the mast of a boat of her size, but of less pretension, and over her mainsail she carried an enormous gaff-topsail. Her hull, in fact, was nothing to speak of compared with her sails; she was all legs and no body, like a great spinfourning-jenny; and certainly, with a light wind, when she could carry all her sail, she did spin along—she could not help it. She was a fast boat; but it was not that that roused our feelings against her, and made it the great ambition of our lives to beat the Mabel. There was nothing that we liked better than to see a boat trim to look at and fast to sail in; but then the Mabel's owners were so overbearing-so horridly overbearing. From the way they talked you would have thought that there was no other boat on the Frith of Forth but the Mabel, and that she could beat the yachts on every other river in the world. They had such nasty ways too. When you went out of an evening for a pleasure sail, with no idea of racing and with no desire to beat anybody, the Mabel would appear from some out-of-the-way bay, and, after having lain-to, until you had half-a-mile of start, would come after you, swinging along under her heavy sails. It was impossible to shake her off, unless another boat appeared that she would rather race. She followed in your wake pertinaciously dogging you. When you tacked, she tacked; when you turned home, she followed, until she made up with you; and when she passed, and shot ahead, her crew looked as unconcerned as if it was quite an accident that they happened to be going the same way as you, and as impudent as if they had come after you only to make you wild, such small victories being quite beneath their notice. Yes! they were very overbearing and very nasty, and we wanted very much to beat the Mabel; every one on the Frith of Forth wanted to do it, but she was very fast. The scarcity of these molluscs is now indeed so marked, that "an oyster refreshment," as Edmund Kean used to call a Haymarket supper, cannot at present be obtained without an expenditure of many shillings, as the reader may easily calculate for himself when he is told that oysters are being retailed at a cost of five halfpence each! Even in Edinburgh, where these molluscs could at one time be bought retail for one shilling the long hundred (120), the price in wholesale quantities on Newhaven Pier now ranges from shillings to five-and-sixpence per hundred. And in the land of oyster-culture they are equally dear. In Paris, last autumn, the cost of oysters at a fashionable restaurant was at the rate of four francs per dozen. In France, although they cultivate as industriously as possible, the cultivators cannot supply Paris with all the oysters that the Parisians require. During the season before last, they could only obtain one hundred and fifty millions; and, last year, with the Exhibition, and Paris itself over-filled daily with strangers, the demand must have been really enormous. The chief provincial cities of France likewise require large supplies of the "fascinating mollusc;" and several of the more extensive oysterfarmers of the Iles de Ré and Oléron are under contract to send all they can grow to Italy, Spain, Germany, and other places at home and abroad. In England, the oyster season is more prolonged than it is in France, and the demand for oysters is equally constant and extensive. London alone, it is calculated, requires an annual supply of six hundred millions of this mollusc; and our larger inland and seaboard cities are proportionally exigent; enormous supplies of all kinds of shell fish are constantly sold in Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool; in fact, wherever the railway penetrates, it carries with it a large or small proportion of the harvest of the sea. But the organisation of our fish supply is not up to the mark. We can never again hope to see oysters at a price commensurate to their intrinsic value. The never-ceasing demand puts an end to any hope of the kind that may be entertained, for although the animal yields its young in thousands, the waste of life incidental to its growth is quite in proportion to its fecundity. Last year one of my friends owned a small boat of the build used by the fishermen on the stormy seas of Shetland and Orkney, and built in Shetland for him. With two or three others who have a taste for salt water I joined him to help to work the boat. She was a very fast sailer for her size, and a good sea-boat too; but she was very much smaller than the Mabel, and could not in any way be considered her rival, our keel being less than twenty-one feet, and the Mabel's more, so that at the regattas we sailed in races for different classes of boats. But we had seen the Mabel's ways, and our indignation was kindled against her. We would have done anything to bring down her vanity. But the yachting season passed away, and the Mabel won all the races, and her crew became more overbearing and upsetting than ever. But before the winter had gone far a boat was put on the stocks, far away in the Island of Shetland. She was for us, and she was to beat the Mabel. Never was the life of a boatbuilder made more a burden to him, for we were very particular, and our boat was to be brought as near perfection as a boat could be brought. Every minute point was canvassed as he went along; and his literary powers were taxed to the very utmost to describe all that he had done, was doing, and was going to do, and to understand the written instructions he received, for they were many and minute. She was to be called the Brenda. Her keel was to be twenty-two feet long, but as her bow and her stern raked forward and aft, she was twenty-eight feet "over all." She was to be rigged as a schooner, and decked as far back as the main mast, the rest being left as a cockpit or well. Every part of her was to be made of the very best timber. When the spring came our yacht was finished. All our ideas had taken form and substance and had become a boat. Our hopes were high, but as yet nothing was known on the Forth of what was in store, and we bided our time. The Mabel was drawn up on the beach at Aberdour, and her sails were stored away in some outhouse. Our boat arrived at Granton on the deck of the Shetland steamer, and we were all there to see her put into the water. Gently she was lifted over the ship's side. It was a moment of terrible suspense as she hung in mid air, for a very slight damage to her would have ruined all our hopes. Gently they lowered her. She reached the water; she sat upon it like a duck. We took her to her anchorage in the harbour, and in the world there is no finer place for mooring a boat than the harbour at Granton. A broad pier runs out from the shore, protected by two breakwaters, which spring from the beach about a quarter of a mile off on each side, and, running out to sea, bend round, until they leave only sufficient room for ships to pass in and out. In the splendid harbour thus formed yachts and pleasure-boats are very kindly permitted to lie, safe from every wind that can blow, and consequently both sides of the harbour are full of boats lying at anchor. A beautiful sight it is on a bright day that fine harbour, with a crowd of steamers clustering round the centre pier, and covered all over with rowing and sailing boats, while in the background, only five miles away on the other side of the river, rises the beautiful outline of the Fifeshire hills. In this favoured harbour we selected a fine berth and moored the Brenda; and then got up her rigging, and her sails-her mainsail, her foresail, and her jib. Then we ballasted her with two tons of iron, and made everything about her snug and nice. When she was ready, it was only a fortnight from the first race of the season. We entered the Brenda, and the Mabel was entered too. Though there were several other boats entered to sail, all the interest of the race was in the Brenda and the Mabel, and it increased day by day. Almost every one was sure that the Mabel would win, for she had never been beaten; but some few expected, and all hoped, that pride would get a fall, and that the Brenda would come in first. And all the time we and our boat were quietly and steadily training for the race. We took her out every evening to bring her gear into good working order, and to study her ways, and to learn to work her quickly and with precision. But, unfortunately, the weather was not at all what we wished, there was nothing but light winds and smooth seas, whereas we wished for a good stiff breeze and a rough sea to try the Brenda's strength, and to show us how she would behave. Our earnest hope was, that on the day of the race, at least, there would be a strong breeze, for we feared that if the wind were light the Mabel might beat us, and we were almost certain that, in a heavy sea, we could walk away from her, and stand twice as much as she could. But the light westerly winds continued, and we got very anxious. All this time, we had never seen the Mabel. She was over on the other side of the Frith, having her tackle overhauled, and getting her bottom scraped and blackleaded, that she might slip through the water easily. The night before the race came, and the weather was worse than ever-the sea as smooth as glass and not a ripple to be seen anywhere. The five, who were to be the racing crew, all slept in the captain's lodging overlooking the harbour, and we lay down to sleep more anxious than ever. Many a time during the night one |