AN EEL-CATCHING ESTABLISHMENT. 209 



and repair of the dykes, in the management of the flood- 

 gates at the time of the arrival of the young fish, and the 

 organization of the labyrinth during the fishing-season. 

 This brigade numbers about three hundred men. For 

 police purposes a brigade of one hundred and twenty is 

 kept, and the general administration is carried on by a 

 brigade of about one hundred. The islands sprinkled 

 over the lagoon are termed "farms." Each is occupied 

 by about twelve labourers, who live in barracks, under 

 strict discipline, and obey the orders of a master, whose 

 will, in his own little territory, is absolute, and who re- 

 ceives a salary of four scudi seventy-five baiocchi per 

 month, with two pounds and a half of fish, or a corres- 

 ponding allowance in money, per day. The labourers are 

 paid a small fixed wage, and a commission on the produce 

 of the farm. When old and infirm, they are supported 

 at the expense of the community ; and a similar charity 

 is extended to their widows and orphans. 



They are specially busy, these strange fisher-folk, who 

 live a life apart from the ordinary work-day world, at 

 the spring and autumn seasons ; that is, when the young 

 fry enter the basin, and when the adult eels are impelled 

 by instinct to make their escape from them. 



The canals are left open from the 2nd of April to the 

 end of June ; and during these three months the young 

 eels spontaneously quit the waters of the Po and the 

 Adriatic to enter the lagoon. The stormier the weather, 

 the greater the influx. Of course, other young fish enter 

 at the same time, and may be seen on the surface of the 

 water, or at a very slight depth. The eels, on the con- 

 trary, keep close to the bottom, and do not show them- 

 selves ; but the people .of Comacchio have a means of as- 



