666 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



gate of Naples to the convent of San Francisco (Battentiere). 

 Its waters are pure ; the bottom is composed of calcareous 

 sands, and the shores at intervals are covered with sea- 

 weed, which the fishermen do not molest, and in which 

 many different species of fish come to spawn and find 

 shelter. The depth of the Little Sea is relatively great and 

 its shores are narrow. In its deepest part it measures 17^ 

 to 1 8 meters (about 55 feet). At 2 or 3 meters from the 

 shore (6 to 10 feet) it is about i meter (3^ feet) deep, and 

 thence it gradually deepens until at 200 meters (650 feet) 

 from the shore it is about 6 meters (19^ feet) deep. Seven 

 small streams whose sources are near at hand flow into the 

 Little Sea, five into the upper part and two into the lower. 

 The most important of these are the Galesio, the Oro, so 

 called from the particles of gold brought down by it, the 

 Battentiere, and the Adeja. The Little Sea receives, more- 

 over, the waters of submarine springs, one of which, the 

 Citrello, has been pointed out by geographers and is very 

 well known ; it rises nearly in the middle of the sea at a 

 great depth, but with such force as to agitate the surface 

 over a space more than 100 meters (325 feet) in diameter. 

 The quantity of water supplied by this spring must be con- 

 siderable, and it is even conjectured by some to be a 

 veritable river which rises there. It is these bodies of 

 fresh water that insure the prosperity of pisciculture ; for 

 during the months of July and August the heat is so great 

 at Tarente and the evaporation so rapid in the Little Sea, 

 that the water would soon become too salt for the oysters to 

 live in it. 



The temperature of the water in the Little Sea rises in 

 summer to 27 and 28 C., and even higher at times; on 

 the 1 5th of September, at 7 o'clock in the morning, my 

 thermometer indicated 25 C. Its density varies greatly, 



