OUR SEA FISHERIES. 223 



all around our coasts, where such cultivation might 

 easily and advantageously be carried out to any 

 extent, it is perfectly wonderful that such facilities 

 are not made available for the production of food. 

 With butcher's meat at Wd. a pound, anything which 

 will serve to relieve the pressure should be taken 

 advantage of. 



Of anything like the cultivation of lobsters, crabs, 

 and such members of the Crustacese we have so 

 little knowledge, that it may be said to be still 

 an occult or unknown science, though there can- 

 not be a doubt but that artificial means of rearing 

 and feeding them might easily be employed with 

 success. To my knowledge it has never even been 

 tried. 



On many parts of the Continent, and particularly 

 in Italy, large salt-water lakes have been made, or are 

 utilized, for the purposes of pisciculture. These works 

 are, for the most part, the remains and the result of 

 ancient industry. The singular lagune at Commachio, 

 on the Adriatic, is a peculiar instance of what art can 

 do to assist nature in this respect. Originally, the 

 spot was a marsh, intersected by small rivulets ; at 

 the outlet of these rivulets small islands, half sub- 

 merged, lay close upon the coast. These rivulets were 

 collected into a canal ; the shallow pools made into 



