The isolated piles are without palisades, and are uncovered only at spring tides. In the months of February and March the spat collected on them scarcely equals in size a grain of linseed; by the month of May it will be about the size of a split pea; in July, a small haricot bean: this is the moment for its transplantation. In this month the bouchotiers, as the men occupied in this culture are called, launch their punts and proceed to the part of the bay where these piles are driven. They detach with a hook the agglomerated masses of young mussels, which they gather in baskets, and carry them to their bouchots. These bouchots, that is to say, the piles covered with fascines and branches, are of four different heights, forming, so to speak, four stages, according to the age and growth of the mussel. Each stage receives the mollusc suitable to it. In the first stage of its existence the mussel cannot endure exposure to the air, and remains constantly under water, except at the period of spring tides. These are gathered in sacks made of old matting, or suspended in interstices of the basket-work. "These immense palisades," says M. Coste, "cover themselves with black clusters of mussels developed between the meshes of their tissues." At that time the second rows are cleared away to make room for younger generations; the mussels, which no longer dread the air, are transported to the more advanced bouchots, which remain above water in all tides, where they stay till they are fit for market, which usually happens after ten or twelve months of culture on the more advanced bouchots.
Fig. 161. Piles, with basket-work, covered with mussels in a fit state to be gathered in.
But, in order to prepare for this consummation, they are subjected to a second and even a third remove. There is no longer any danger in subjecting them to the air for many hours. From this they pass to a fourth stage, termed Amont (Fig. 161). From this stage the full-grown mussel is removed. Under this system of culture the reproduction, nursing, collecting, and preparing for market, are made simultaneously. From July to January the mussel trade is in full operation, and the flesh in perfection. From February to April is the close season; their flesh is then poor and leathery. It is also remarked that those which inhabit the upper rows of the wicker-work are of a mellower flavour than those on the lower ranks, and that the intermediate rows are an improvement on those which are buried in the mud, although even these are preferable to mussels gathered on the sea shore in a state of nature.
M. Coste gives a graphic description of the manner in which this industry is carried on. "Having supplied the neighbouring villages," he says, "for the purpose of supplying the more distant cities, the bouchotiers land their punts, filled with mussels, which their wives carry into grottoes hollowed out of the cliffs; where they clean and pack them in hampers, baskets, and panniers, for conveyance by carts or pack-horses. They depart on their respective journeys at night, so as to reach their markets at La Rochelle, Rochefort, Surgéres, Saint-Jean-d'Angely, Angoulême, Niort, Poictiers, Tours, Angers, and Saumur, at an early hour. A hundred and forty horses and ninety carts make upwards of thirty-three thousand journeys annually to these cities. Besides this, forty or fifty boats come from Bordeaux, the isles of Ré and Oleron, and from the sands of Olonne, making an aggregate of seven hundred and fifty voyages per annum, distributing the harvest of the little bay at places where horses could not serve the purpose.
"A bouchot, well furnished, supplies annually, according to the length of its wings, from four to five hundred charges. The charge is a hundred and fifty kilogrammes (over three hundred pounds), and sells for five francs; a single bouchot thus carries a harvest equal in weight to a hundred and thirty to a hundred and forty thousand pounds, equal in value to £100; the whole bay probably yielding a gross revenue of £480,000. This figure, and the abundant harvest which produces it, gives only a slight idea of the alimentary resources of the sea shore; and every part of the coast, properly adapted for the purpose, could be turned to equal advantage. In the mean time, the Bay of Aiguillon remains a monument of what one man may accomplish."
Fig. 162. Malleus alba (Lamarck).
While commending the mussel as an important article of food, we must not conceal the fact, that it has produced in certain persons very grave effects, showing that for them its flesh has the effects of poison. The symptoms, commonly observed two or three hours after the repast, are weakness or torpor, constriction of the throat and swelling of the head, accompanied by great thirst, nausea, frequent vomitings, and eruption of the skin and severe itching.
The cause of these attacks is not very well ascertained; they have in turn been ascribed to the presence of copper pyrites in the neighbourhood of the mussel; to certain small crabs which lodge themselves as parasites in the shell of the mussel; to the spawn of star-fishes or medusæ that the mussel may have swallowed. But, probably, the true cause of this kind of poisoning resides in the predisposition of individuals. The remedy is very simple: an emetic, accompanied by drinking plentifully of slightly acidulated beverages.