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[3] OYSTER-CULTURE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 909 
TARENTE. 
From the earliest times the maritime population of Tarente has busied 
itself in the cultivation of oysters and mussels. This industry is carried 
on in salt ponds which border the city on the west, and to which the 
name of “ Little Sea” has been given. Being connected with a roadstead 
or open sea, by means of a narrow channel, sufficiently large, however, 
to insure the renewal of the water, the Little Sea (piccolo mare) presents 
the most favorable conditions for the production of shell-fish. The 
productiveness of this portion of the coasts of the Ionian Sea is pro- 
verbial; fish and shell-fish of all kinds occur there in abundance, and 
in addition to the species which are also common to the Mediter- 
ranean and the Atlantic coast of Europe, it likewise possesses certain 
other varieties peculiar to itself. The Littie Sea, which is quite well 
sheltered from the sea winds by the eminence on which the city of 
Tarente stands, is also protected against the winds from the interior by 
the range of hills in the midst of which it lies. It measures twelve 
miles in circumference, and is six miles wide in its broadest part, that 
is, from the gate of Naples to the convent of San Francisco (Battentiere). 
Its waters are pure; the bottom is composed of calcareous sands, and 
the shores at intervals are covered with sea-weed, which the fishermen 
do not molest, and in which many different species of fish come to spawn 
and find shelter. The depth of the Little Sea is relatively great and its 
shores are narrow. In its deepest part it measures 174 to 18 meters 
(about 55 feet). At 2 or 3 meters from the shore (64 to 10 feet) it is 
about 1 meter (34 feet) deep, and thence it gradually deepens until at 
200 meters (650 feet) from the shore it is about 6 meters (194 feet) deep. 
Seven small streams whose sources are near at hand flow into the Little 
Sea, five into the upper part and two into the lower. The most import- 
ant of these are the Galésio, the Oro, so called from the particles of gold 
brought down by it, the Battentiere, and the Adeja. The Little Sea re- 
ceives, moreover, the waters of submarine springs, one of which, the 
Citrello, has been pointed out by geographers and is very well known ; 
it rises nearly in the middle of the sea at a great depth, but with such 
force as to agitate the surface over a space more than 100 meters (325 
feet) in diameter. The quantity of water supplied by this spring must 
be considerable, and it is even conjectured by some to be a veritable 
river which rises there. It is these bodies of fresh water that insure 
the prosperity of pisciculture; for during the months of July and August 
the heat is so great at Tarente and the evaporation so rapid in the Lit- 
tle Sea, that the water would soon become too salt for the oysters to 
live in it. 
The temperature of the water in the Little Sea rises in summer to 279 
and 28° C., and even higher at times; on the 15th of September, at 7 
o'clock in the morning, my thermometer indicated 25° C. Its density 
varies greatly, according as the examinations are made near to or at a 
