COMMENCEMENT OF OYSTER-CULTURE. 351 



neum, stored in the Treasury at Naples, I saw a glass vase of 

 fish-eggs similar to those of the genus Salmo. Those eggs 

 and their mode of preservation induced me to believe that a 

 higher class of men inhabited Italy seventeen hundred years 

 ago than do now in this iron age of intelligence. Is it not 

 true that aggregations of high intellects like celestial nebu- 

 lae, or the focal coruscation of rays of light and heat cluster 

 at different times on different parts of the earth, to reflect in- 

 tellectual light to guide coming generations ? 



Well, it is stated that the inventions in ancient Rome, first 

 devised to pamper the children of luxury, afterward were 

 employed to supply subsistence to the nation. Des"mviers 

 having stocked their preserves with many ornamental fishes, 

 whose graceful gambols, beautiful forms, and colors chatoy- 

 antes had delighted the ladies of that interesting period, did 

 not disdain to encourage the increase of food-fishes also, with 

 which their preserves were richly stocked. 



But, if the Romans did not hatch fishes artificially, that 

 they excelled in the cultivation of Crustacea can not be suc- 

 cessfully refuted. The removal of oysters from one water 

 and planting them in another was begun by Sergius Grata at 

 the commencement of tie Christian era, by bringing them 

 from Brindisium and planting them in Lake Lucrin, which, 

 according to the evidence of the gourmet chief Crassus, 

 greatly improved their flavor. Grata finally covered Lake 

 Lucrin with reticulated paraphernalia made of wood, raised 

 at one end on stone piers, and placed in numerous positions 

 for the convenience of the deposit of oyster-spat. The Lake 

 of Fusaro also, between the ruins of Cumae and the promon- 

 tory of Misenum "theAvernus of the ancients" being salt, 

 was planted with oysters ; and the plans for oyster culture 

 adopted by the Romans were quite similar to those pursued 

 in France at present. 



My investigations of the rise and progress of fish-culture 

 by the method of stripping the ova from the female and the 

 milt from the male fish, and mixing them for vivification, in- 



