830 | REPORT OF CQMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6} 
of immense profit; for, according to the statement of Pliny, it was not 
only for pleasure, but for love of gain that he pursued this business: 
Ostrearum vivarium primus omnium Sergius Orata invenit in Bajano, etate 
LI. Crassi oratorio, ante Marsicum bellum: nec gule causa, sed avaritie, 
magna vectigalia talé ex ingenio sus percipiens.* 
This curious industry, all the details of which I have been able to study 
with care, thanks to the obliging co-operation of M. Bonnuci, inspector- 
general of the royal monuments, who kindly accompanied me during my 
exploration of the gulf, gives to the civil list, despite its restricted ap- 
plication, a revenue of 32,000 francs; but it would be still more lucra- 
tive if, from the disinterested hands of the prince, the proprietorship of 
the lake Should pass into those of speculators. Introduced into the salt 
ponds of our sea-coast, the trade of Lake Fusaro would then be a real 
source of wealth to our population. Extended, with modification, to 
the cultivation of the natural banks which exist in the sea, it would as- 
sume the proportions of an enterprise of general utility. I will explain 
how this may be done.* 
In comparing the methods of Lake Fusaro with the methods of culti- 
vating the natural sea banks, it is not difficult to perceive that if the 
mode of treating the latter is not abolished the source of production wilk 
certainly soon be exhausted. Speculation, in fact, without taking any 
care of new generations, which it would, however, be so lucrative to re- 
tain and preserve, only occupies itself in perfecting instruments to be 
used in securing oysters for the market from the artificial beds where 
they lodge. This class only exerts itself, therefore, to render the means 
of destruction more efficacious; for these beds are precisely those where 
the young ones which, in their infancy, did not abandon their place 
of birth, increase. Or, since it attacks with equal power of destruction 
the old and the young, it follows that any bed is surely destined to be 
destroyed by the hands of the very person who cultivates it. Yet we 
would be able to produce more abundant crops without ever touching 
the stock which originates them, or, in other words, that which now 
forms the sole resource of the industry. 
In order to attain so important a result it will be sufficient, in intro- 
ducing the processes employed with such success in Lake Fusaro, to 
simply modify them in accordance with the demands of the place where 
it is desired to operate. We should have the frame-work weighted 
by stones put in at its base, formed of numerous pieces, covered with 
stakes solidly attached, secured with props, &c.; then, at the spawning 
season, this apparatus should be lowered to the bottom of the sea, either 
above the oyster beds or around them. There they should remain until 
the young were produced and had covered the different pieces of the 
frame-work ; ropes, indicated at the surface of the water by a buoy, would 
permit of their being drawn up when it is considered desirable. 
These movable beds, so to speak, could be transported to localities 
——— 
“Hist. nat., 1. ix, c. liv. 
