DRAINING OF LAKE CELANO. 4929 
Claudius to drain the Lake Fucinus, now Lago di Celano, in 
the former Neapolitan territory, about fifty miles eastward of 
Rome. This Jake, as far as its history is known, has varied 
very considerably in its dimensions at different periods, accord- 
ing to the character of the seasons. It lies 2,200 feet above 
the sea, and has no visible outlet, but was originally either 
drained by natural subterranean conduits, or kept within cer- 
tain extreme limits by evaporation. In years of uncommon 
moisture it spread over the adjacent soil and destroyed the 
crops; in dry seasons it retreated, and produced epidemic 
disease by poisonous exhalations from the decay of vegetable 
and animal matter upon its exposed bed. Julius Cesar had 
proposed the construction of a tunnel to lower the bed of the 
lake and provide a regular discharge for its waters, but the 
enterprise was not actually undertaken until the reign of Clau- 
dius, when—after a temporary failure, from errors in levelling 
by the engineers, as was pretended at the time, or, as now ap- 
pears certain, in consequence of frauds by the contractors in the 
execution of the work—it was at least partially completed. 
From this imperfect construction, it soon got out of repair, but 
was restored by Hadrian, and is said to have answered its de- 
sign for some centuries.* In the barbarism which followed 
the downfall of the empire, it again fell into decay, and though 
numerous attempts were made to repair it during the Middle 
Ages, no tolerable success seems to have attended any of these 
efforts until the present generation. 
Draining of Lake Celano by Prince Torlonia. 
Works have been some years in progress and are now sub- 
stantially completed, at a cost of about six millions of dollars, 
for restoring, or rather enlarging and rebuilding, this ancient 
* The fact alluded to in a note on p. 97, ante, that since the opening of a 
communication between Lake Celano and the Garigliano by the works noticed 
in the text, fish, of species common in the lake, but not previously found in 
the river, have become naturalized in the Garigliano, is a circumstance of 
