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To formulate in detail any scheme for the improve- 

 ment of the Comacchio industry does not enter into the 

 scope of this report ; for present purposes it will suffice 

 if I enumerate what in my eyes appear to be the principal 

 defects of the existing- system and note the general 

 principles upon which any permanent improvements 

 must be based. 



In the first place the present area is too extensive to 

 receive adequate cultural attention. Worse still, the 

 major portion is so remote from the sea that it is impos- 

 sible to provide means for tidal freshening, a measure 

 essential to the permanent well-being of a lagoon such 

 as that of Comacchio. Experiment has shown that in 

 the canals connecting the valli with the sea, no tidal rise 

 and fall is marked at a distance of 10 kilometres from 

 the sea mouth. The two great valli, Mezzano and 

 Fossidaporto, constituting almost one-half of the lagoon, 

 are both beyond this distance from the sea and hence 

 cannot possibly be benefited appreciably by ordinary 

 tidal flow. The frequent freshening rightly considered 

 to be vitally important in the case ol French fish farms 

 is virtually absent here. This lack of control over these 

 great expanses of water is the basal reason for the 

 disasters which punctuate the history of the lagoon, and 

 till it be removed the prosperity of the establishment is 

 at the mercy of the seasons. All other defects are of 

 very minor importance compared with this. 



Were the fish farm area of the lagoon reduced by 

 means of the reclamation of the sections remote from 

 the sea, and effort concentrated upon a number of small 

 valli contiguous to the sea-bar, it would, I am positive, 

 be at once possible to render stable the commercial 

 success of the industry by eliminating or at least reduc- 

 ing to unimportance the dangers and losses hitherto 

 attendant upon the occurrence of abnormally dry seasons. 

 It would then be possible to devise means for the 

 admittance of tidal water at frequent intervals and in 

 large volume, the salinity of the enclosed waters would 

 never appreciably exceed that of the sea, large supplies 

 of plankton would be available as food, and in presence 

 of the healthier conditions set up by the alternate ebb 

 and flow of large volumes of water, the growth of 

 the fish would be accelerated. The great losses now 



