43 



In a good year about 90,000 kilos of smelts may be taken 

 and 2,500 to 3,000 kilos of gobies. * 



Fully two-thirds of the eels and smelts are cooked 

 and preserved in vinegar — marinated. The rest is sold 

 fresh, except for special orders and under exceptional 

 conditions of superabundance, when such large quantities 

 are caught as exceed the resources of the marinating 

 factory and of the receptacles for live storage. 



Under present arrangements the whole produce of 

 the lagoon is leased out by the Valli administration for a 

 term of years, eight in the contract now running. Under 

 the terms of this agreement the Commune, as the owners 

 of the fishery, retain full control of the fish farms, employ- 

 ing their own permanent staff upon all the necessary 

 duties, including that of collecting the fish. The lessees 

 have nothing to do directly with the working and 

 administration of the Valli, the administration supplying 

 loads of fish as caught from day to day during the season 

 at the lessees' factory. 



At the time of my visit the lease of the produce was 

 held by Messrs. Anselmo Cornia &. Co., and Signor 

 Cornia was kind enough personally to conduct me over 

 his works and to explain fully the processes in operation. 

 The factory is new and most conveniently designed. A 

 canal runs along; the rear with sidinQ-s branchinor into 

 the building itself. In this way, the loads of fish are 

 brought by boats without handling or delay right into the 

 the hands of the workpeople. 



I should here premise that the method of curing is 

 limited almost entirely to the marination of eels and 

 smelts, a process said f to have been invented (more 

 probably improved) by Count de Bonneval, a French 

 soldier of fortune, who commanded the Austrian troops 

 who seized Comacchio in 1708 and who remained there 

 for some years in charge of the garrison. Bonneval 

 appears to have been a man of versatile talents and keen 

 to do his utmost to advance the prosperity of the loca- 

 lity under his charge. 



At the time of my inspection of Messrs. Cornia's 

 factory, work was in full swing. Aflat had just come in 



* Goein, La Pisciculture en eaux salees, p. 212, Paris 1891. 

 f Bellini, La Laguna di Comacchio otti il dominio della Corte di Vienna, 

 p. 10, Venice 1908. 



