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giving access to the open sea and to the fresh water of the rivers 

 bounding two sides of the lagoon, allow control at will either of the 

 entire lagoon or of any one of its compartments, with as much facility 

 as one can operate a laboratory model ; gigantic labour until now 

 without renown, modestly accomplished by plain men, resigned to the 

 rough discipline of the sea, to the monotony of barrack life, to the 

 sacrifice of sleep during stormy nights when tempests torment the 

 lagoon and lash its surface into commotion — satisfied as the price of 

 so much labour with a modest wage and the ration of lish which a 

 paternal administration distributes to them daily." 



" If we imagine a fleet under the autocratic rule of an admiral 

 charged with the oversight of all needs, to have anchored in mid- 

 ocean, condemned there to subsist upon the produce of their fishing, 

 communicating with the rest of the world solely for the purpose of 

 transhipping fish into vessels coming to trade for it, we have the image 

 of this colony whose fishing stations and barracks are scattered like 

 ships of a squadron among the isles within this immense lake." 



Since Coste's historic visit, several well-known 

 French, Italian, and German scientists interested in fish- 

 culture, have studied on the spot the lessons to be drawn 

 from the practice of this great Italian fish-rearing enter- 

 prise, but I cannot learn that any British enquirer has 

 ever inspected the lagoon. References to it in English 

 works are both scanty and vague ; for this reason and 

 also because Coste's book, besides being difficult to 

 procure, requires considerable amplification and amend- 

 ment in the light of present day knowledge if to be 

 of practical service to fishery authorities in India, in 

 the following pages I propose to describe with such 

 detail as appears material, the existing condition and 

 organization of the Comacchio lagoon, the system by 

 which fish fry are introduced, reared and eventually 

 captured, the methods employed to prepare the produce 

 of the fishery for market, together with notes upon the 

 causes which from time to time during the past century 

 have affected adversely the prosperity of the under- 

 taking. The inherent defects of the system, and the 

 modifications in plan and working which appear to me 

 needful to introduce in order to remedy these drawbacks 

 and to permit of greatly enhanced results, will receive 

 attention and then by making comparison between the 

 methods practised respectively at Comacchio and at 

 Arcachon, I hope to be able, by utilizing the best 

 features of the two systems, to outline a practical 

 working; scheme for the establishment of fish-farms in 



