826 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 
ornamented with the spoils of the world, took the place of these dark 
groves. Rome gave herself up to this place of delight, attracted by a 
soft sky and an azure sea. The warm, sulphurous, aluminous, saline, 
and nitrous springs which run from the top of these mountains formed 
the pretext for the emigration of the patricians who were driven from 
their homes by ennui. 
Commerce exhausted its resources to accumulate around them all the 
enjoyments which their indolence sought, and among those who de- 
voted themselves to this enterprise, Sergius Orata, a wealthy man of 
agreeable manners, and possessed of great credit, conceived the idea of 
organizing oyster beds, and of bringing this mollusk into popular favor. 
He had oysters brought from Brindes, and persuaded everybody that 
those which he raised in Lake Lucrin contracted there a flavor which 
rendered them better than those of Averne, and even those of the most 
celebrated countries. His opinion gained ground so rapidly that, in 
order to meet the demand, he finally occupied all the circumference of 
Lake Lucrin with constructions destined to receive oysters, encroaching 
thus upon the public domain with so little discretion that it was neces- 
sary to bring a lawsuit to dispossess him of his usurpations. At the 
time this misfortune overtook him, to express the degree of perfection to 
which he had brought this industry, it was said of him in allusion to the 
suspended receptacies, of which he was also the inventor, that if he was 
prevented from raising oysters in Lake Lucrin he would become wealthy 
by making them spring forth from the roofs. Sergius, however, was not 
destined to organize oyster beds. He had created a new industry, of 
which the methods are still applied some miles distant from the place 
where he had carried it on. I hope, however, to show this further on. 
Between Lake Lucrin, the ruins of Cumes and Cape Miséne, there 
exists another salt pool about one league in circumference, from one to 
two meters in depth over the greater portion, and with a bottom of 
blackish voleanic mud. This is the Achéron of Virgil, and bears at 
the present time the name of Fusaro. At intervals around its entire 
border one sees spaces, generally circular in outline, occupied by stones 
brought there from away, but there is no possibility of determining when 
this industry was begun. These stones resemble a kind of rocks, 
which have been covered with oysters from Tarente in such a way as 
to transform each of them into an artificial bed. About forty years ago, 
the sulphurous emanations from the crater occupied by the waters of 
Fusaro became so great, that the oysters of all these artificial beds died, 
and to replace them it was necessary to restock the beds. Around each 
of these artificial mounds, which are generally 2 or 3 meters in diameter, 
stakes are driven rather near together, and so as to surround the space, 
in the center of which are the oysters. These stakes project a little 
above the surface of the water, so that one may easily seize them with 
the hands and raise them when it becomes necessary. There are other 
stakes, also, arranged in long series, and united by a rope from which 
