of the inland vine-growers and general farmers have removed to the coast in order to try their luck at this new industry. There is a great demand for the oyster in all parts of France, and as the mollusk may be kept out of the water for a few days without any harm, or can be kept in tanks and be artificially fed till such time as it is wanted for table purposes, a number of fishermen, who could not find an outlet for either their round or flat fish in consequence of the rapid transit required to insure their fish being fresh on arrival at the market, have, within a year or two, taken to the rearing and fattening of oysters. There are few places now on the shores of France where oyster culture is not carried on in some of its varied phases. There are either viviers for keeping them alive till called for; parks for breeding them in; claires for fattening them, or pits for greening them. And the French government, with a view to promote so laudable an industry, has established model beds on various parts of the coast, in order to teach practically the art of oyster farming. As well as being useful in a commercial sense, these model beds have been of great use to M. Coste and other French naturalists, by allowing them to determine the exact age at which the oyster becomes reproductive, without which knowledge no animal, sea or land, can be profitably bred. The French park system also admits of the proper study of the spat mystery, which is now attracting the gravest attention of all interested in the natural and economic history of the oyster. As an example of the spat difficulty, it may be mentioned, that while in the basin of Arcachon, the spat has never been known to fail, yet around the Ile de Ré the fall for these some years back has been very intermittent, as it has also been on the English beds. In the sheltered basin of Arcachon the plentiful spatting may be accounted for on the principle that the spat has nowhere else to go-it must fall within the basin. In an open expanse of sea it is different; the spat may be carried away to great distances by tidal influences, or a sharp breeze upon the water may waft the oyster seed away for many a long mile. Every bed has its own time for spatting; thus, one division of the Ré beds may be spatting on a fine warm day, when the sea is like glass, so that the spat cannot fail to fall; while on another portion of the island the spat may fall on a windy day, and be thus left to the tender mercy of a fiercely receding tide, and so be lost, or fall, mayhap, on inaccessible rocks, a long way from the shore. On the Isle of Oleron, which supplies the green oyster breeders of Marennes with such large quantities, it is quite certain that in the course of the summer a friendly wave will waft large quantities of spat into the artificial parks, when it is known that the oysters in these parks have not spawned.

The difference between French and English oyster farming is not much, but the little that there is, is of great importance in the economy of an oyster farm. The endeavor of the French is to obtain spat or brood without purchase. Hitherto this has not been the case in England; the dredgemen are but too willing to pay for brood when it can be obtained, but of late years, in consequence of a paucity of spat, it has become scarce and ill to get. The new oyster farms which have been laid down in England of late years are all upon the French plan, and already we are hearing of their success, spat having fallen upon some of them in great plenty. In the Firth of Forth oyster beds, no pains are taken to protect the oyster; the grounds are never overhauled or "worked;" the brood is sold by the hogshead to all and sundry who will come and buy it; the result, as may be expected, is that in Edinburgh oysters are scarce, small in size, and dear. While the men of Whitstable have become rich by their thrift, the men of Newhaven have become

poor from consenting to the spoliation of their oyster beds, which are naturally the finest in the world. They have at length killed the goose for the sake of the golden egg.

Any attempt to find out the figures pertaining to the annual oyster commerce of France is generally abortive. No one knows exactly what these figures are, but, of course, every man forms his own opinion. An oyster merchant of Rochelle, doing business with the growers of the adjacent islands of Oleron and Ré, will say £250,000 per annum, while a Bordeaux skipper, with large ideas, will give figures representing four times that sum. It is unquestionable that there is an immense oyster business done in France. Paris alone requires at present a daily supply that, in the course of the season, is said to amount to a hundred millions, and the large provincial towns all consume in proportion. Countless numbers are, besides, exported, cured, prepared, and pickled. Official figures state that in 1862 the three factors appointed by the government for the sale of oysters in the grand market disposed of 67,836,900, being an increase of twelve and a half millions on the preceding year. We are constantly coming across paragraphs in the provincial newspapers of France about the oyster trade. Lately the Phare de la Manche told us that Paris now requires ten times as many oysters as in 1856, and that they are now double the price; further, that six thousand women get a living during the oyster season in opening oysters alone. The same paper also gave us the astonishing intelligence that huîtres de la Manche were the most esteemed in Paris; that the green oysters of Marennes are not now in demand, except for exportation, and that the Ostend pitted oysters had taken their place. It is certain that Ostend furnishes to Paris about three million oysters per annum; there are official figures to that effect. There has been also published a cluster of reliable figures about the oyster grounds of Arcachon, in which it is stated that the oyster grounds of the basin, including the royal parks on either side of the bank of La Hillon, occupy space to the extent of twelve hundred acres. A stock of over two millions of breeding oysters was laid down in the royal grounds, and there yielded an enormous amount of spat. A portion of the two millions, viz., five hundred thousand, laid down in 1863, is said to have yielded young to the extent of seven millions! If this statement be correct as to a fortieth part of the mother stock, what would the total yield be? It would, in fact, be too enormous for #gures to express it.

Everybody has heard about the immense fecundity of the oyster, and to yield such supplies as are indicated by the above figures the animal would require to be very prolific. The writer has seen a little branch, taken from an artificial bed, which contained a few thousands, and he has seen many common tiles with hundreds of oysters on each. The Whitstable of France is on the Ile de Ré, where may be seen a few thousand oyster parcs and also a few hundred claires, or fattening ponds, and hundreds of thousands of oysters in all stages of growth, from the size of a pin's head to a crown piece. One of the many difficulties which the French oyster-growers have had to solve is the construction of a proper medium for the reception of the spat. Every kind of material has been tried-branches of trees, logs of wood, fragments of rock, and now tiles made of clay are being extensively used, and with the greatest possible success. At Arcachon a hive of an ingenious kind, that is, a suite of small boxes filled with gravel, and contained in a larger box, was tried, and was found to suit very well. The best of all bottoms could be con structed in the parcs by the filling into them of the numerous shell middens that are to be found in some of the fishing places. The formation