286 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



boat can haul up rope after rope and pick oJS such oysters 

 as he desires for the market. They are said to grow large 

 with extreme rapidity, thus hanging freely in the water. 

 The spat is collected on fascines sunk in deeper water at 

 the mouth of the bay, and transferred, when of sufficient size, 

 to the ropes inshore. There are other similar methods of 

 cultivation at Taranto, Lake Fusaro, and elsewhere in the 

 south of Italy, where this form of aquiculture has been 

 practised continuously since the time of the Roman Empire, 

 when it is said to have been started by Sergius Orata, called 

 by Cicero *' Luxuriorum Magister." The methods which 

 Coste introduced to revive the depleted oyster-beds of 

 France in the middle of last century were based upon what 

 he had seen in the south of Italy. Plate XXVI, Fig. 2, 

 illustrates the method of cultivation seen in the Bay of Spezia. 



It is unnecessary to give further examples from the south 

 of Europe, but the following shows a different form of 

 aquiculture, in which oceanographic knowledge in regard to 

 temperatures and salinities of the water plays a part. 



There are some remarkable salt-water ponds on the west 

 coast of Norway where oysters are grown with great success. 

 Such a pond, for example, is found at Espevig, and the follow- 

 ing particulars are taken from the account given by Herman 

 Friele to the International Fishery Congress at Bergen in 

 1898. This pond is separated from the fjord outside by a 

 low sandy barrier about 5 feet above high-water mark. 

 It is only at a high spring tide or during an inshore gale 

 that the waves pass over this barrier and renew the salt 

 water in the pond. The pond is also supplied with fresh 

 water from a small stream, and normally the surface layer 

 of the water is completely fresh. At a depth of 3 to 5 feet, 

 however, it is as salt as the fjord outside. The temperature 

 of the deeper Salter water is very high — about 28° C. (82° F.) 

 • — and abundance of organisms, both animals and plants, 

 are found growing on the rocky sides, while the muddy 

 bottom is covered with large clusters of oysters. Professor 



