’
THE SHELLFISH INDUSTRY295
It was certainly an examination of these«by the French
Professor Costé which resultedeventually in the development of the great modem French oyster industry.
The
increasing popularity of oysters,among the French in the
_
early nineteenth century led-to a more and more intensive
shing of the ne natural oyster beds with which the
western coast ofFrance is dotted, and though for many
years this seemed to have no effect on the number of
oysters collected yet nally the natural rate of increase was
overtaken and stocks began to diminish, to such an extent
that, to quote but one example, 7o,ooo,ooo, oysters were
__
dredged in the Bay of Cancale
and only about
_
1,000,000 from the same locality in 1868!
All along the
coasts of Francethéoyster beds were depleted in alike
fashion, and the government had nally to
in,
_
drastically restricting oyster dredging pending scientic
investigations.
ï
'
'
It was the boundlessenthusiasm of Professor Costé of
»
the Collège de France whiCh _eventually turned disaster
into
abiding success.
The
rst
experiments consisted
‘
merely of attempts to restock the old beds by_means of
imported oysters. . Experiments of this nature carried
out near St. Malo in Brittany met with great success, and
it was
for the rst time moreover,
that young or
“spat” oysters could be collected articially'on fascines
'
or .bundles of twigs just as successfully in France as they
had been in Italy.
To make this clear we must say a little —
'
about the life—history of the oyster.
The adult oyster is
the most sluggish‘ of animals ;.fastenèd to stones or rocks
at an early -—age itis incapable of locomotion and is only
moved by currents powerful enough to move the stone to
whichit"is attached. . Butthe lyoung oÿst€rs——prodüœd
annually in
single“ oyster- may
'
produce millions :of:eggs in ausirigle—seasOn—+are
unattached
,