CHAP. VIII. ] 



LAKE FUSARO. 



349 



of the fisheries, as the first seat of oyster-culture. It is the 

 Averrras of Virgil, and is a black volcanic-looking pool of 

 water, about a league in circumference, which lies between the 

 site of the Lucrine Lake the lake used by Grata and the 

 ruins of the town of Cumee. It is still extant, being even 

 now, as I have said, devoted to the highly profitable art of 

 oyster-farming, yielding, as has often been published, from 



LAKE FUSARO. 



The accompanying engraving gives a general view of Lake Fusaro (the Avernus of the 

 ancients), showing here and there the stakes surrounding the artificial banks, the single 

 and double ranges of stakes on which the faggots are suspended, and at one extremity the 

 labyrinths, in the face of which is a canal of from 2 to 3 metres broad and l metres deep 

 joining the lake to the sea. A small lake, believed to be the ancient Cocytus, communicates 

 with this canal. The pavilion in the lake is the ordinary residence of the persons in charge 

 of the fishery. 



this source an annual revenue of about 1200. This classic 

 sheet of water was at one time surrounded by the villas of 

 the wealthy Italians, who frequented the place for the joint 

 benefit of the sea-water baths and the shell-fish commissariat, 

 which had been established in the two lakes (Avernus and 

 Lucrine). The place, which, before then, was overshadowed 

 by thick plantations, had been consecrated by the supersti- 

 tious to the use of the infernal gods. 



