AND THE FISH THEREOF. 129 



paste made of bread or flour and cheese, mixed with the refuse water of 

 salted sardines. 



They are used chiefly for wrasses, gobies, red mullets, gilt-heads, 

 scorpions, conger-eels, cephalopods, lobsters, &c, in spring, summer, and 

 autumn, and are drawn up for examination once in twenty-four or forty-eight 

 hours (see Plate XXIV.). 



The Vivajo, or Vicra, derived from the Latin vivarium, is a paunch- bellied 

 willow basket, with a narrow mouth and cover, for keeping fish alive in the 

 sea until sold ; used as store-pots for eels, turbots, crabs, &c. They are 

 much used in the lagoons, where they are sunk in sheltered waters, and 

 secured by cross-piles (parriaghi). The common shore-crabs are kept in 

 them to await the process of ecdysis or moulting (shedding of the skin), when 

 they are sold as molecche (" soft crabs " of the United States). These 

 baskets are both wider and deeper than the common. 



The Marotta, or Burchio, is a boat for keeping fish alive in, also Burchio 

 da bisatti for eels; length, 2 to 12m.; price, 10 to 25 fl., and above. The 

 holes in them are, however, generally too small, and the fish are apt to die 

 from this cause : perhaps, also, from the fact of the water getting foul, or 

 not being exactly what is required, either as regards its temperature or its 

 saltness, these boats being, as a rule, moored in harbours, and in the 

 proximity of the shore and of sweet-water springs or courses. 



The Burchiello is a smaller boat of the same description, used by the 

 tognaroli in line-fishing. 



The value of the fishing gear on the Austro-Hungarian coast, belonging 

 to native fishermen, represents an amount of 1,150,000 fl. For further 

 particulars on this subject, see Statistics. 



