OYSTER CULTURE IN ITALY. 665 



the malady so common in certain parts of Italy, viz., 

 malaria caused a new canal to be dug at the extremity of 

 the lake, in order to secure, to the greatest possible extent, 

 the renewal of the water. It is claimed that this work 

 hastened the decay of Lake Fusaro. The contact of this 

 new current with the old resulted in the stirring up of the 

 materials that had been accumulating in the lake for many 

 years. Sands were brought down by the current, thus 

 changing the nature of the bottom. The oyster-culturists, 

 after vain endeavours to overcome this new misfortune, 

 abandoned their concessions, and in the year 1869 the last 

 oysters disappeared from Lake Fusaro. 



TARENTE. 



From the earliest times the maritime population of 

 Tarente has busied itself in the cultivation of oysters and 

 mussels. This industry is carried on in salt ponds which 

 border the city on the west, and to which the name of 

 "Little Sea" has been given. Being connected with a 

 roadstead or open sea, by means of a narrow channel, 

 sufficiently large, however, to insure the renewal of the 

 water, the Little Sea (piccolo mare) presents the most 

 favourable conditions for the production of shell-fish. The 

 productiveness of this portion of the coasts of the Ionian 

 sea is proverbial ; fish and shell-fish of all kinds occur 

 there in abundance, and in addition to the species which 

 are also common to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic 

 coasts of Europe, it likewise possesses certain other 

 varieties peculiar to itself. The Little Sea, which is quite 

 well sheltered from the sea winds by the eminence on which 

 the city of Tarente stands, is also protected against the 

 winds from the interior by the range of hills in the midst 

 of which it lies. It measures twelve miles in circumference, 

 and is six miles wide in its broadest part, that is, from the 



