5498
"THE SEAS
-
'
.
separate thé/”spat.
The next stage in development was
reached when the tiles ”began to
coated with substances
which could later be- aked off Without damaging the tile
and a number of attempts were made before the perfect
method was found by an Arcachon mason named Michelet.
_
This method, discovered in 1865 and now universally
adopted, consists in coating the tiles with a mixture con'
taining denite proportions-of lime and sand.
‘
Costé did not live to see the success of'the industry he
.
had
founded, he died neglected and in poverty, but
Michelet, the practical man, lived-to turn Costé’s dreams
into the routine methods of a great industry.
The spat
collected on the collectors after it had grown to suitable
size, was detached by aking off the lime beneath it ; the
tiny oysters so obtained——îar too Small to be_exposed on
the
beds—were
placed in “ ambulances ” devised by
_
Michelet.
These are
shallow b0Xes "on short legs and
covered-Over with wire netting above and below, “in which
the young oysters remain until they reach a size'when they
‘
can s‘afely be laid on the open
beds.
'T0-day-the Bay of Arcachon is the greatest centre of
oyster— rearing in the world, four to ve hundred million
oÿSters' being 'exported every year.
The Bay is almost
1and+loCked with only a small opening to the sea, and,
;
While at high tide the
covers some 37,000 acres, at low
tide great stretches of sand and mud are exposed,“ more
,
than half the area of the Bay being uncovered‘ at spring
tides.
Almost the whole of this exposed region between
.
tide marks is 00ve‘red with 0yst‘er parks such as those
shown in Plate 1016; each of which is surroùnded on its
outer lside by a palisade of small twigs which serve to
protect the oysters within from the attacks of marauding
shand Which are the only indication of the presence of
the“ parks «When the tide' is full.
Within the parks the
"THE SEAS
-
'
.
separate thé/”spat.
The next stage in development was
reached when the tiles ”began to
coated with substances
which could later be- aked off Without damaging the tile
and a number of attempts were made before the perfect
method was found by an Arcachon mason named Michelet.
_
This method, discovered in 1865 and now universally
adopted, consists in coating the tiles with a mixture con'
taining denite proportions-of lime and sand.
‘
Costé did not live to see the success of'the industry he
.
had
founded, he died neglected and in poverty, but
Michelet, the practical man, lived-to turn Costé’s dreams
into the routine methods of a great industry.
The spat
collected on the collectors after it had grown to suitable
size, was detached by aking off the lime beneath it ; the
tiny oysters so obtained——îar too Small to be_exposed on
the
beds—were
placed in “ ambulances ” devised by
_
Michelet.
These are
shallow b0Xes "on short legs and
covered-Over with wire netting above and below, “in which
the young oysters remain until they reach a size'when they
‘
can s‘afely be laid on the open
beds.
'T0-day-the Bay of Arcachon is the greatest centre of
oyster— rearing in the world, four to ve hundred million
oÿSters' being 'exported every year.
The Bay is almost
1and+loCked with only a small opening to the sea, and,
;
While at high tide the
covers some 37,000 acres, at low
tide great stretches of sand and mud are exposed,“ more
,
than half the area of the Bay being uncovered‘ at spring
tides.
Almost the whole of this exposed region between
.
tide marks is 00ve‘red with 0yst‘er parks such as those
shown in Plate 1016; each of which is surroùnded on its
outer lside by a palisade of small twigs which serve to
protect the oysters within from the attacks of marauding
shand Which are the only indication of the presence of
the“ parks «When the tide' is full.
Within the parks the