ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1069 



been raised upon a small scale in Italy for more than a 

 thousand years, by methods probably the same as were 

 used by Sergius Grata, who (as already stated), according 

 to Pliny, first attempted parcing oysters at Baia, and, 

 finally, brought the art of oyster culture to a high state of 

 perfection, really creating a new industry which is still 

 practised in thousands of places much as he left it. This 

 is especially the case in the Neapolitan Lake Fusaro the 

 terrible Acheron of the poets which is a great oyster- 

 pare, in which Art is made effectually to aid Nature in the 

 multiplication of its products. This famous oyster-bank 

 lies in the neighbourhood of Baia and Cumae, and forms 

 one of the most interesting spots in that beautiful bay. It 

 is a salt pond, shaded with a girdle ot magnificent trees. 

 It is about three miles in circumference, and about a fathom 

 iri depth at its deepest part ; its bottom is muddy and black, 

 like the rest of this volcanic region. 



It will be understood, from what has been said, that 

 the chief obstacle to the reproduction of oysters is the 

 absence of any solid body to which the young spawn can 

 attach itself, and the means of shelter from animals which 

 prey upon them. The fishermen living on the shores of 

 Lake Fusaro have long realised this, and provided against 

 it by warehousing, as it were, in the lake near the sea, the 

 oysters ready to discharge their spawn, while retaining the 

 young generations captive in the protected basins, where 

 they are sheltered from various causes of destruction to 

 which oysters are exposed in the open sea. 



Upon the bottom of the lake, and all around it, the 

 proprietors of Fusaro have here and there constructed hil- 

 locks, with stones heaped up, and artificial rocks, raised 

 sufficiently to shelter the depots from mud and slime. 

 Upon these rocks they deposit the young oysters gathered 



