There can be no question, however, that the cultivation of oysters by the French is far more complete and efficient than our own, and has reached a higher degree of scientific perfection combined with economy and solid profits. And yet, between 40 and 50 years ago, the French beds were utterly exhausted and unproductive, and showed every sign of failure and decay. It was in 1858 that the celebrated beds on the Ile de Ré, near Rochelle, were first started. Their originator was a certain shrewd stone-mason, by name Boeuf. He determined to try, entirely on his own account, whether oysters could not be made to grow on the long muddy fore-shore which is left by the ebb of the tide. Accordingly, he constructed with his own hands a small basin enclosed by a low wall, and placed at the bottom a number of stones picked out of the surrounding mud, stocking his ‘parc’ with a few bushels of healthy young brood. The experiment was entirely successful, in spite of the jeers of his neighbours, and Boeuf’s profits, which soon began to mount up at an astonishing rate, induced others to start similar or more extensive farms for themselves. The movement spread rapidly, and in a few years a stretch of miles of unproductive mud banks was converted into the seat of a most prosperous industry. The general interests of the trade appear to be regulated in a similar manner to that at Whitstable; delegates are appointed by the various communities to watch over the business as a whole, while questions affecting the well-being of oyster-culture are discussed in a sort of representative assembly. At the same time as Boeuf was planting his first oysters on the shores of the Ile de Ré, M. Coste had been reporting to the French government in favour of such a system of ostreiculture as was then practised by the Italians in the old classic Lakes Avernus and Lucrinus. The principle there adopted was to prevent, as far as possible, the escape of the spat from the ground at the time when it is first emitted by the breeding oyster. Stakes and fascines of wood were placed in such a position as to catch the spat and give it a chance of obtaining a hold before it perished or was carried away into the open sea. The old oyster beds in the Bay of St. Brieuc were renewed on this principle, banks being constructed and overlaid with bundles of wood to prevent the escape of the new spat. The attempt was entirely successful, and led to the establishment or re-establishment of those numerous parcs, with which the French coast is studded from Brest to the Gironde. The principal centres of the industry are Arcachon, Auray, Cancale, and la Teste.