46 COMACCHIO. [CHAP. ii. 



remained to this day without establishing any direct com- 

 munication with surrounding countries. 



The precise date at which the great lagoon of Comacchio 

 was formed into a fish-pond is not known, but so early as the 

 year 1229 the inhabitants of the place a community of 

 fishers as quaint, superstitious, and peculiar as those of Buckie 

 on the Moray Firth, or any other ancient Scottish fishing port 

 proclaimed Prince Azzo d'Este Lord of Comacchio ; and 

 from the time of this appointment the place grew in pros- 

 perity, and the fisheries from that date began to assume an 

 organisation and design which had not before that time been 

 their characteristic. The waters of the lagoon were dyked out 

 from those of the Adriatic, and a series of canals and pools 

 were formed suitable for the requirements of the peculiar 

 fishery carried on at the place, all of which operations were 

 greatly facilitated by the Eeno and Volano mouths of the Po 

 forming the side boundaries of the great swamp ; and, as a 

 chief feature of the place, the marvellous fish labyrinth cele- 

 brated by Tasso still exists. Without being technical, we may 

 state that the principal entrances to the various divisions of the 

 great pond and it is divided into a great many stations are 

 from the two rivers. A number of these entrances have been 

 constructed in the natural embankments which dyke out 

 the waters of the lagoon. Bridges have also been built over 

 all these trenches by the munificence of various Popes, and 

 very strong flood-gates, worked by a crank and screw, are 

 attached to each, so as to regulate the migration of the fish 

 and the entrance and exit of the waters. A very minute ac- 

 count of all the varied hydraulic apparatus of Comacchio would 

 only weary the reader ; but I may state generally, and I speak 

 on the authority of M. Coste, that these flood-gates place at 

 the service of the fish-cultivators about twenty currents, which 

 allow the salt waters of the lagoon to mingle with the fresh 

 waters of the river. Then, again, the waters of the Adriatic 



