54 



commercial firms naturally hesitate to take the heavy 

 risks involved by a tender based on normal returns and so 

 discount the risk by heavy reductions in the sums they 

 offer for the produce of the lagoon. Cycles of unremu- 

 nerative years usually fall to be worked by the commune, 

 whereas during" cycles of prosperity, competition for the 

 fish-contract is usually satisfactory. 



Each large valle or group of smaller ones has its 

 separate staff of workmen and fishers presided over by 

 an experienced chief, \\\z. fattore . These men are accom- 

 modated with quarters in the fishery building found at 

 each of the principal fishing stations. Here they live 

 and mess together like soldiers in barracks, a necessity 

 consequent upon the fact that the chief work of the year, 

 the herding of the fish into the labyrinths, takes place 

 during the night. The life is hard and trying but custom 

 and the traditions of centuries of such conditions render 

 the men passively content, satisfied if they be allowed a 

 couple of days, Saturday and Sunday, on alternate weeks 

 to revisit their families in Comacchio. To permit of this 

 arrangement half their number take holiday in alternate 

 weeks. 



The working staff struck me as a fine body of men ; 

 true handy men they are, for their duties include the 

 supervision of the entry of the fry from the sea during 

 the spring, the repair of the dykes, the weaving of the 

 reed screens, the construction of the labyrinths and 

 sluices and the collection of the fish. A ration of fish 

 is given them in addition to wages. Repairs to the 

 embankments and fishing stations are executed during 

 the hot season (June, July and August) when the water 

 in the lagoon is low and other duties are light. 



The work of policing is done by a separate staff of 

 over one hundred men who patrol the lagoon in light 

 boats both day and night. Their duties are no sinecure 

 for there are many poachers in the villages around the 

 lagoon and even in Comacchio itself. Coste stated his 

 belief that fully as large a quantity offish is stolen by 

 these poachers, as is fished by the administration. 

 Seeing that the perimeter of the lagoon is 177 miles, the 

 opportunities for theft are undoubtedly very great, but 

 while admitting this, I cannot believe that such an 

 enormous loss of fish is possible ; I incline to think that 



