OYSTER CULTURE IN ITALY. 663 



the first to engage in the cultivation of the oyster, and their 

 methods, inherited by the Italians, have come down to us 

 without any modification. The method of cultivating this 

 mollusc at Tarente to-day is the same as that practised in 

 the time of Sergius Grata. In 1853 ^- Coste visited 

 Fusaro, and from that remarkable journey of scientific 

 exploration, it is said, he brought back the elements of the 

 new industry to which science has assigned general rules 

 that have since been improved upon by practice, But if, 

 prior to that time, an exceptionally fine flavour was given 

 to the precious bivalve at Marennes, Courseuilles, and 

 Cancale, by a special treatment, we were still ignorant of 

 the processes of taking the spawn and of supplementing 

 the loss occasioned by the continued impoverishment of 

 the beds on our coast, the sources of production which had 

 formerly been erroneously supposed to be inexhaustible. 



Oyster-culture, properly so called, is carried on in Italy 

 in only one locality, Tarente. The celebrated Lake Fusaro, 

 to which I will devote a few words hereafter, has become 

 sterile and has been abandoned. The oysters consumed in 

 Italy, beyond those received from Tarente, come from the 

 gulfs of Genoa and Naples, from the coasts of the Adriatic, 

 and from the ponds of Corsica. 



The Gulf of Genoa produces small and delicate oysters, 

 which are held in high repute. At Naples, near the rocks 

 of Castel, and in other deeper parts of the gulf, oysters 

 similar to those of Genoa, are still found, which are desig- 

 nated, scientifically, under the name Ostrea plicatula. At 

 neither Genoa or Naples are the banks sufficiently well 

 stocked to permit the use of the drag, with profit, in 

 gathering oysters. The fishermen take them by hand, 

 sometimes at a considerable depth. The products of this 

 fishery are entirely consumed in the vicinity. Rome, 



