OYSTER CULTURE IN ITALY. 667 



according as the examinations are made near to or at a 

 distance from the places where the fresh water enters ; 

 three or four hundred meters (975 to 1,300 feet) below 

 where the Citrello emerges I found the hydrometer indi- 

 cated 2 J, while over the oyster and mussel pares it marked 

 from 2f- to 3 ; in the roadstead, which likewise receives 

 the fresh water of the Citro, and near which are situated the 

 oyster beds that furnish the young oysters, I found an 

 indication of 3. It was not without astonishment that I 

 became convinced that oysters could live and thrive in 

 water as warm as that of the small sea of Tarente ; for it 

 had generally been admitted that their preservation was im- 

 possible in water exceeding 23 or 24 C.* In support of 

 this assertion it was customary to refer to the oysters of 

 Lake Fusaro, which died in large numbers whenever the 

 temperature of the water reached such a height as this. 

 But in reply it may be argued that the oysters of Lake 

 Fusaro die rather in consequence of the action of volcanic 

 emanations, or of sulphurous gases, which, under the 

 influence of a high temperature, escape from the decaying 

 animal and vegetable remains accumulated at the bottom 

 of the lake. From this fact it is evident that the heat of 

 the water on the French Mediterranean coast is not as 

 insurmountable an obstacle to the establishment of oyster 

 pares as has been asserted. 



The Little Sea of Tarente is leased by the city to a 

 company that pays for it an annual rental of 38,000 francs 

 ($i i, 600). The oyster pares are situated in the lower part, 

 where the currents unite, always bringing with them fresh 

 nourishment and an ever-changing supply of water. They 

 are in number, twenty-one. Each oyster pare measures 



* Professor Oronzio Gabrielle Costa, Del Fusaro. 



