246 MARITIME PISCICULTURE. 



popular manners, who set himself to the work of making- 

 oysters famous ; and this, as Pliny tells us, not from 

 mere love of guzzling, but from greed, " nee gulce. causa, 

 sed avaritm, magna vectigalia tali ex ingenio suo perci- 

 piens" (Hist. Nat. 1. ix. c. 54.) He organised oyster- 

 parks, stocked with oysters from Brindisium, and per- 

 suaded everybody that those he reared in Lake Lucrinus 

 were superior to those of Lake Avernus, or even of the 

 most celebrated places. An arch-epicure doubtless he 

 was, seeing that Cicero (De Fin. 1. ii.) styles him luxu- 

 riorum magister, and sorely infected with the love of 

 filthy lucre likewise, seeing that his oyster greed made 

 him, in the interest of his darling molluscs, seize upon 

 public property, which the law could hardly free from 

 his grasp, to the amusement of the Eoman wits, who 

 prophesied that, if debarred ostreo-culture in Lake Lu- 

 crinus, he would to a certainty carry it up to the house- 

 roofs. Still his guzzling and his greed should not 

 hinder us regarding Sergius as a useful citizen, seeing 

 that he originated a new species of industry, whose 

 usages are still followed for miles round the locality 

 where he pursued it. The scene of this singular indus- 

 try is nowadays termed Lake Fusaro (between Cuma3 

 and Cape Misenum), a mud-bottomed, volcanic, black, 

 salt lake the veritable Acheron of Virgil, in fact. The 

 whole vicinity has, from an unknown period, been occu- 

 pied by spaces, generally circular, filled with stones 

 transported thither. These stones are imitations of 

 rocks, which are covered with oysters from Tarentum, 

 so that each of them forms an artificial bank. Bound 

 each of these artificial rocks, generally of the diameter 

 of from six to nine feet, stakes are fastened so near each 

 other as to enclose the central space where the oysters 

 are. These stakes are a little above the surface of the 

 water, so that they can be readily laid hold of and re- 

 moved when this is desirable. There are also other 

 stakes arranged in long rows, and bound together by a 

 cord, by which are suspended small twigs destined to 



