August 31, 1867, reach 239,516 bales. Below we give the general movement for the twelve months: Other foreign ports... 3,506 U. S. ports, including 10,792 bales from Montgomery to New 108,950 Burned on ship Mobile..... 2,437-264,811 .bales. 3,714 Stock on hand Sept. 1, 1867..... The exports for the last five years are given in detail in the Mobile Planter's and Exchange Price Current, as follows: Grand total...... 98,158 142,764 116,036 158,332 179,854 251,582 413,698 572,457 817,813 694,789 The value of the exports the last year is $22,263,749, and the number of pounds 77,227,884, making the average weight per bale 503.36 lbs., and the value $145 12. CHARLESTON COTTON REVIEW FOR THE YEAR.-The receipts of cotton at Charleston during the past year reach 166,297 bales. Below we give the amount during the twelve months: From the yearly review of the Charleston Courier we take the following statement of the exports of cotton from that port for two years : The San Francisco papers give the following official statement of the deposits and coinage at the United States branch mint in that city for the fiscal year ending June 30: The total value of the gold and silver deposits is $19,005,049. Below we give the localities from which the above bullion was received: These returns compare as follows with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866 : CULTURE OF OYSTERS.* The writer will give an account of the cultivation of this favorite mollusk as practiced in France, and notably at the imperial, or model parcs in the bassin d'Arcachon. This bay was evidently intended by nature for an oyster farm, and its rich, firm, muddy bottom has always yielded them in vast quantities until about 1840, when, to the regret and astonishment of the fishermen (who had mercilessly dredged them up at all seasons, and had killed the goose that had laid the golden eggs), their mine was found exhausted; fine, full-flavored oysters that had been heretofore bought for three or four sous the hundred, now readily sold for three francs and upwards, and even with these prices the oystermen were starving. In 1859 Professor Coste, by order of the emperor, passed the summer at Arcachon, and studied the then unknown subject of oyster cultivation, located the now flourishing and successful parcs, and addressed a report to the emperor urg. ing the immediate replanting of these exhausted beds. The following year his suggestions and plans were carried out under the immediate supervision of this naturalist, with surprising and satisfactory results. Here are nearly two thous and acres of excellent bottom for growing oysters, uncovered by the tide for an average of two hours at each low-water, and with the mild winter climate of the southerly coast of France, this circumstance is of priceless value, as it enables the laborers to work among, and even handle the oysters at will, and render the term "oyster farm" specially applicable to this locality. A parc is regularly laid out like a market garden, into squares of say two hundred feet, a path goes all around and through them, a post is fixed on the corner with the number of the lot painted on it, and a record is kept by the superintendent of what size, quantity and quality of oysters are planted on each, and his books and stock are inspected at stated intervals. Common curved tiles of baked clay, costing less than a sou a piece, have-after experiments with various contrivances-proved to be the most practical method of catching the drifting "spat." These tiles, or tuiles as they are called, were used at first just as they came out of the kiln; but it was found that so large a proportion of the "spat" followed with its young shell the inequalities of the surface, grew so firmly to it. and were destroyed in separating them from the tile, that another ingenious plan was adopted. The tiles are dipped into a kind of cement containing sand and hydraulic line, which, drying in a few minutes, coats them with an evenly rough surface in every way attractive to the "spat." When it was desirable to remove the oysters, a chisel, fashioned to form the curve of the tile, is easily introduced between it and the oyster, which drops off uninjured. About the middle of May these tiles are arranged in piles, ten feet long, five feet high, and five feet wide, which structures are called ruches or les rushes tuilees. These tiles are piled in various ways; usually they are placed with the concave roof uppermost, each layer running transversely across the layers beneath it The sides of the tiles do not touch, but are separated by about three inches * Artificial Oyster Cultivation in France, by F. W. Fellowes.-From American Naturalist. VOL, LVII.NO. III. 10 of space, and often, though not always, adult oysters are laid along in these spaces. When the ruche is otherwise completed, heavy stones are placed upon the top to make the mass more solid and safe to resist the action of the stormy waves. Oysters are strewn all around these ruches, which are regularly separated from each other by a space of fifteen feet. Between the ruches bundles of faggots or fascines, bound together in the middle with galvanized wire, are suspended about one foot from the bottom, by a cross piece made fast on two low posts. When the drifting "spat" is ready to adhere to a suitable object, a very large proportion of it is caught, or seeks refuge in one or the other of these friendly asylums, and safely grows to the usual merchantable size. By the middle of August the oysters have finished their reproductive labors, and begin to fatten again, having become very poor during the Summer, but the tiles and faggots are not taken up until a month later. By that time all the 66 spat" " has located itself, and the ruches are carefully taken apart, each tile being laid down in the same position as in the ruche, side by side in long furrows or ditches prepared for them. There they are allowed to remain until the following Summer, when the oys ters on the upper side of the tiles are removed and planted in beds, hollowed out about three inches deep, running the length of the parc; while the tile is then turned over with the roof-side downwards, and the oysters on the other side are left to grow as they at first fixed themselves, unless, being too much crowded, they grow upon each other, and irregular shapes; in this case they are thinned out. The writer saw many thousands of tiles in rows, with oysters three years old, and of handsome size, still growing where they first were "set;" but usually they are all removed to the beds the second year, and the tiles, after being redipped in the cement, are again piled as before. The faggots are taken to some enclosures, which are called clares, which are made of solid mason-work, water-tight, where the water can be admitted and excluded at pleasure, and where the waves can have no power, and are there unbound and left to themselves to grow until large enough to be separated from the branches, which is usually six to eight months, when they are treated like those grown upon tiles. At the end of the third year the oysters have attained the most desirable size, and are rea y for the market. Those grown in the Imperial parcs are not sold, but are consumed by the Emperor, presented by him to crowned heads and friends, either for use or to stock their private parcs, or abandoned to the poor fishermen, who on certain days are allowed to gather them. The princess Batichiochi, a near relation of the emperor, has a large farm in the bay of Quiberon, and sells oysters to supply the Paris restaurants and others, in large quantities; and, though her farm was only in its third year, it was, as the superintendent remarked with pride and pleasure, more than paying expenses; but next year! "Mais l'anee prochaine nous ferons des belles affaires allez !” The sale of the yearling seed is made a special business by some oystermen, and they bring from four to six francs the thousand. They are put up in round baskets with a small hole in the top, and are kept, at the season of sale, suspended from scaffoldings erected over the water for the purpose, so that the bas kets are never above the surface. The French oyster-growers are very particular that the oysters taken up for market shall lie for five or six days in the claires before forwarding them to consumers; this is done in order that all mud and impurities shall be washed out in the pure sea water, and the oyster is certainly whiter and handsomer for this clean bath. The Marennes, or green oyster, is colored by being placed in claires when the tidal water is let out at certain intervals; a confervoid growth is induced which gives the highly prized color and flavor, and doubles the value of the oyster. The Ostend oysters are placed in wooden vats, and are frequently tossed and tumbled about by women with rakes, thus breaking off the thin edge of the new growth of shell and forcing it to grow more round and deep. Labor in this country is much too high to make a remunerative cultivation of the oyster in this manner practicable. THE MOUNT CENIS TUNNEL. The French Imperial and the Italian Royal Commissioners had an official inspection of the works of the tunnel through the Mount Cenis on the 24th and 25th of July. Of the total length of the 12,220 metres, equal to seven English miles and a half and 235 yards, there were excavated on the 31st of December last 3,900 metres on the Italian or Bardeneche side of the mountain, and 2,435 metres on the Modane or French side; total, 6,335 metres. Between the 1st of January and the 30th of June of the present year, 774 metres were excavated, being the largest number by nearly 200 metres excavated in any one-half year since the commencement of the works in 1857. Of the 744 metres, 415 are on the Italian, and 318 on the French side, making the total excavated at that date 7,109 metres. Ever since the commencement, the progress made on the French side has been slower than on the Italian-thus, while on the 30th of June last the latter had only to execute 1,754 metres, or about an English mile and a tenth, to accomplish its half, on the French side there remained to be excavated 3,357 metres, or nearly two miles and a tenth. If three metres a day could be excavated on the French side, the perforation of the tunnel would be accomplished in three years and three weeks; but, as in all probability it will not be proceeded with more rapidly than two metres a day, it will require four years and 31 weeks to complete it. The tunnel will be lined in its entire length with stone quarried in the immediate vicinity of the two entrances. At the present time the excavations, or headings, are about 1,500 metres in advance of the amount lined. Each metre excavated and lined hitherto has cost, on an average, 11,000 francs, and various circumstances will tend to increase this expenditure as the works proceed further inward. The approach on the French side, to connect its entrance at Modane with St. Michel (the present termination of the railway system of France in the direction of the Mont Cenis); will be twelve miles long, through an extremely difficult and mountainous country. On the Italian side the amount of railway to be constructed from Bardeneche to connect it, in the neighborhood of Susa, with the railway system of Italy, will be 22 miles. The whole of these works will be of a very heavy and expensive character. They |