53 



preferred to the larger and more cumbersome wooden 

 live-chests. 



Eels and mullet are also occasionally prepared for 

 market by smoking' and whenever phenomenally heavy 

 catches are made, as for example during an excep- 

 tionally dry season when the excessive salinity of the 

 lagoon drives all species and all ages of fish to attempt 

 to escape therefrom, then resort is had to the salting 

 and sundrying of such fish as are not suitable for mari- 

 nating and of those quantities which are beyond the 

 capacity of the storage receptacles. The preparation of 

 salt fish under these circumstances is an exceptional 

 expedient resorted to only to save the fish from being 

 utterly lost. Except under stress of necessity this 

 method of preparation is not practised as such fish 

 brings in poorer prices than does either live or mari- 

 nated fish. The last-named is the favourite as it is the 

 only method of curing known at Comacchio which 

 gives better returns than the sale of live fish, 1 10 lire 

 being a fair average price for ioo kilos of marinated eels 

 as against 80 lire for the same weight in the fresh 

 (living) state. Mullet are worth fresh about 60 lire per 

 100 kilos, smelts 30 lire, and gobies about 21 lire. 



Administrat 1 ON. 



Since this great fishery establishment became the 

 property of the Commune of Comacchio, it has been 

 administered for the general good by a communal or 

 municipal committee who arrange all matters relating to 

 the upkeep, policing and fishing of the various sections 

 of the lagoon. 



The communal administration may also undertake 

 the preparation for market of the produce of the fishery, 

 but under ordinary circumstances the total produce for 

 a term of years is offered for public tender at periodical 

 intervals and it is only when no satisfactory contract is 

 possible that the commune organizes a manufacturing 

 department charged with the curing and wholesale distri- 

 bution of its products. Such an eventuality arises only 

 after or during one of the periodically recurring crises 

 which afflict the industry when a succession of abnormally 

 dry seasons entails wide-spread death and loss of fish ; 

 the length of these cycles of poor seasons being indefinite, 



