278 Italy. 



to depend on the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. On the other hand, in 

 the case of freshwater fisheries, the latter ministry was brought in contact both with the 

 Department of the Interior and with that of Public Works. Next came the laborious task of 

 collecting all the necessary materials for a uniform and general Law on Fishery ; it was the 

 labour of several years, during which harbour masters, chambers of commerce, provincial and 

 municipal deputations, special, local, and a central general committees, worked away with a 

 will. The result was the present Fishery Law, which bears the date of 4th March, 1877 ; 

 it consists of four chapters and twenty-four articles, and is drawn up in a liberal spirit. 

 Much more difficult was the compilation of the bye-laws or regulations necessary for the 

 administration of the new law; a first general committee drew up instructions for such 

 regulations, a draft of which was submitted to special local committees, and the results of the 

 work of the latter brought before a new central committee, composed of competent persons, 

 who finally formulated the Eegulations for Sea and for Freshwater Fisheries, promulgated 

 on the 13th of June, 1880. The regulation for sea-fisheries consisted of ninety articles 

 divided into six chapters, that for freshwater fisheries of thirty-five articles and five chapters. 

 Local wants and special cases had been carefully provided for, and a truly liberal spirit 

 pervaded the whole; yet, on application, many serious difficulties arose, often where least 

 expected: protests and petitions came in from different parts of the country, relating to 

 several articles of the new bye-laws, but more especially directed against the restrictions 

 placed on trawling. A permanent Consultive Fisheries Committee, composed of competent 

 persons members of parliament, professors of zoology, and government officers had mean- 

 while been named by royal decree ; to this committee devolved the task of examining the 

 objections to and petitions regarding the new fishery regulations, and that of providing for 

 special cases that had been overlooked or not sufficiently provided for. Much labour was got 

 through by single members and in two general meetings of the Fisheries Committee, and 

 the results were new and revised regulations both for sea and freshwater fisheries ; the first 

 of which, promulgated on the 13th of November, 1882, appears to have met with the require- 

 ments of most fishermen, and to guard sufficiently the preservation and propagation of the 

 more important species of food-fishes. It consists of ninty-nine articles divided into six 

 chapters. The new regulation for freshwater fisheries is now ready. Such is a very summary 

 account of the actual state of fishery legislation in Italy. 



III. SEA-FISHERIES. A. General. 1. Fishermen. Not everywhere along the Italian sea- 

 board do fishermen, as in other parts of Europe, form a separate and well-defined class ; the 

 reason of this must be sought in the comparative small importance of special fisheries, both in 

 the Mediterranean and in the Adriatic. Along many miles t>f our coasts fishing is done in a 

 desultory manner by old men, women and children, who do any other sort of work besides, 

 while the able-bodied men are away at sea or as workers in naval yards or elsewhere ; in 

 some localities the inhabitants do not fish at all. But exceptions also exist, and one of the 

 most remarkable cases is that of Chioggia near Venice, where the entire male population, 

 except infants, is engaged in fishery, and passes a large portion of the year away from home 

 down the Adriatic to the Ionian islands. On the southern Italian coasts of. the Mediter- 

 ranean fishing populations are also met with, and as especially so may be quoted the inhabi- 

 tants of the Ponza Islands, Ischia, Faro (Messina), Trapani and Taranto. As a matter of 

 course, special fisheries are usually in the hands of special classes of fishermen, as those of 

 the thunny, anchovy, and precious coral. 2. Boats. A bare enumeration of the different 

 kinds of boats used for sea-fisheries along the [coasts of Italy would fill up many pages ; I 

 shall therefore merely mention the commoner classes. The first comprises the smaller boats 

 known by the names of battelli, barche, gozzi, schifi, and schifetti ; they vary in capacity from 

 half to four tons, in length from six to twelve metres, are keeled but not decked, carry oars 

 and a small mast with a lateen sail, and a small jib (pollaccone') ; they are only used at a 

 small distance from the shore for minor fisheries and do not carry generally more than four or 

 five men. In the second class may be included larger boats, from five to sixty tons burden, 

 completely decked and carrying from five or six to ten or twelve men ; they have usually 

 two masts and carry at least three sails, one a big lateen. These boats can perform pretty 

 long sea voyages, and often go for fishing purposes at a considerable distance ; there are many 

 varieties of this larger sort of fishing boats, but the most notable are the singular Bmgozzi of 



