REPORT ON ARTIFICIAL FISH-CULTURE. 67 



rally lead to the means of selling them for con- 

 sumption at a price so moderate, that districts 

 farthest off from their production _could com- 

 pete for having a supply of such alimentation 

 for the laboring classes. You will find, sir, on 

 this question materials for documents of great 

 importance in practical details, from time im- 

 memorial, on the marshes of Commachio, whose 

 waters are constantly changed by the flux and 

 reflux of the Adriatic. There a population of 

 about four hundred men, disciplined as if aboard 

 ship, is occupied the year round, in fishing and 

 preparing fish for all parts of Italy, with which 

 they have a large commerce. It would be use- 

 ful, then, to know the procedures by which they 

 arrive at this last point. 



Accept, Sir, the assurance of my most dis- 

 tinguished consideration, 



COSTA. 



I should perhaps, in justice to the two fish- 

 erman of Bresse, mention here that Dr. Haxo 

 claims that they have had great injustice done 

 them, both by M. Edwards and M. Costa. He 

 insists that they are the original discoverers, that 

 their discovery has been stolen from them by 

 naturalists, who claim it as theirs, or as belonging 

 to discoveries of a past century. 



