144 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



Third, the waters of the lake became so low that the remains of Marmvio, one of three sub- 

 merged cities, were discovered, and all sense of danger passed away; but, from 1783 to 1787, 

 the floods returned yet stronger than ever, and wholly destroyed the fertile lands in the 

 neighborhood. From that time till now, various plans have been presented, adopted, and 

 begun, though fur several reasons suspended. The work ii now, however, it is to be hoped, 

 in a fair way of being completed, having been undertaken by a French company. The com- 

 mencement of the operations will be upon the old tunnel of Claudius, which is incomplete, 

 and is sixteen feet below the lowest part of the bed of the lake. Its actual height is from 

 seven to fourteen feet ; but it is now proposed to enlarge it to the height of twenty feet, and 

 sixteen feet in breadth. When completed, a dam is to be erected at the mouth of the tunnel, 

 with a number of sluices at different levels. The highest sluice will be opened, which will 

 carry oif the first few feet of the surface water. While these works are in course of execu- 

 tion, dredging machines are to be used, with the view of clearing a canal for the sluices to 

 the deepest part of the lake. The sluices will afterwards be removed, one after another one 

 only remaining in permanence to regulate the flow of the water into the tunnel. To this 

 must be added, that the formation of a reservoir, as a temporary recipient for rain or river 

 water, enters also into the plan of the company. In this way modern science and enterprise 

 will triumph over obstacles whi<}h Nature has ever interposed to the cultivation of a vast 

 tract of land, and will complete a work which was designed so far back as the time of Julius 

 Caesar. There is this difference, however, that, whereas the ancient plan contemplated only 

 the limiting of the inundations of the lake, the actual plan attempts the complete drainage 

 of it. Of enterprises of this character, it is said to be the grandest that has ever been 

 undertaken. Lake Haarlem, in Holland, extended, indeed, over a larger area ; but it was not 

 so completely drained as the lake of Fucino will be. A few words now as to the benefits 

 arising from this mighty operation. Thirty-three thousand acres of the richest soil will be 

 reclaimed, which become the perquisite of the company. This is not all, however ; for an 

 end will be put to the uncertainty and insecurity which arise from the periodical rising of 

 the lake, and which forbid the employment of capital on land which may be submerged the 

 next season. This probability, or possibility, depends on a curious feature in the natural 

 history of the lake. This is the sudden rises in the water-level to which the lake is sub- 

 ject, the causes of which have never been explained, though speculation has been busy. The 

 variation in its level, within twenty years, has amounted to so much as forty feet, it having 

 been, in 1816, higher, by forty feet, than it was in 1835. Since that year, it has again been 

 gradually rising, until it has now risen twenty feet higher than it was in 1835. These are no 

 slight variations, and prove how much danger attends the cultivation of the land bordering 

 the lake for a considerable space. Strabo, in a note which I quote from Suetonius, alludes 

 to the yet greater height to which the waters attained in his days, and suggests an explana- 

 tion of the cause similar to one which has been adopted in the present day. It is a most 

 curious question. One favorite theory of the present day, though without any facts to sup- 

 port it, is as follows : There is a certain drainage area belonging to the lake ; but a con- 

 siderable belt of high ground above it has no drainage at all. It is suggested that, in the 

 winter-time, with a prevailing wind from one direction, the streams are carried toward the 

 lake, increasing its bulk and its height. With a contrary wind, these streams are carried off, 

 and a corresponding diminution ensues. Another theory is, that there are fissures in the 

 rock whereby the water escapes ; that by some causes these fissures are closed ; that during 

 other years these fissures are again opened, and the water flows. The drainage of the water, 

 it is supposed, leaves sand and earth, which choke up these fissures ; that the water conse- 

 quently rises, and, when high, bursts through and finds for itself a channel. Whichever 

 theory be right, or whether either, it is clear that an immense benefit will be conferred by 

 the drainage of the lake, not merely by the restoration of much land that is constantly sub- 

 merged, but by giving security to the proprietors in the neighborhood. Nor is this vast 

 undertaking without great interest to the antiquary. Three cities and a large number of 

 country-houses, have, at various periods, been swallowed up by the waters of the lake. His- 

 tory preserves the names of these three cities Valeria or Marruvium, Penna, and Archippus 

 which contain a treasure of antiquities perhaps not less precious than that of Pompeii. In 



