348 SERGIUS OKATA. [CHAP. vni. 



oyster-culture which has been so much noticed of late in the 

 scientific journals, and which appears to have been inspired 

 by the plan of the mussel-farms in the Bay of Aiguillon, and 

 the oyster-pares of Lake Fusaro, so far at least as the principle 

 of cultivation is concerned. At the instigation of the French 

 Government, he made a voyage of exploration round the coasts 

 of France and Italy, in order to inquire into the condition of 

 the sea-fisheries, which were, it was thought, in a declining- 

 condition. It was his " mission," and he fulfilled it very well, 

 to see how these marine fisheries could be artificially aided, as 

 the fresh-water fisheries had been aided through the re-dis- 

 covery by Joseph Eemy of the long-forgotten plan of pisci- 

 culture, as already detailed in a preceding portion of this work. 



The breeding of oysters was a business pursued with great 

 assiduity during what I have called the gastronomic age of 

 Italy, the period when Lucullus kept a stock of fish valued at 

 50,000 sterling, and Sergius Grata invented the art of oyster- 

 culture. There is not a great deal known about this ancient 

 gentleman, except that he was an epicure of most refined taste 

 (the " master of luxury " he was called in his own day), and 

 some writers of the period thought him a very greedy person, 

 a kind of dealer in shell-fish. It was thought also that he 

 was a housebroker or person who bought or built houses, and 

 having improved them, sold them to considerable advantage. 

 He received, however, an excellent character, while standing 

 his trial for using the public waters of Lake Lucrinus for his 

 own private use, from his advocate Lucinus Crassus, who said 

 that the revenue officer who prevented Grata was mistaken if 

 he thought that gentleman would dispense with his oysters, 

 even if he was driven from the Lake of Lucrinus, for, rather 

 than not enjoy his molluscous luxury, he would grow them on 

 the tops of his houses. 



Lake Fusaro, of which I give a kind of bird's-eye view, is 

 highly interesting to all who take an interest in the prosperity 



