212 THE COMACCHIO FISHERIES. 



fire at a proper temperature ; the other superintends 

 the roasting of the eels, carefully shifting the spits from 

 a higher to a lower position in front of the fire, until the 

 fish are properly done, when the spits are taken off by 

 the woman who lays them aside for the next operation. 

 This woman also attends to the grease that collects in the 

 trough below the spits, and stores it in jars for future 

 use. Besides these fireplaces, a number of furnaces are 

 fitted with large circular frying-pans, which are under the 

 exclusive management of men. All the fish for which 

 the spit is unsuitable are fried in these pans, with a mix- 

 ture of the grease dropped from the eels and olive-oil. 

 They are exposed to the air for some time, even in very 

 warm weather, before being cooked. This operation 

 renders them fitter for preservation. The eels roasted on 

 spits, and the fish cooked in the frying-pans, are placed in 

 baskets of open work to dreep and cool. They are then 

 packed in barrels of large and small sizes. The packing 

 is carefully and regularly done, similar to the method of 

 packing herrings. A mixture of vinegar and salt is 

 poured into the barrel before it is closed up. The vinegar 

 must be of the strongest, and the salt employed is gray 

 rock-salt instead of white salt. Previous to exportation, 

 the barrels are branded with different letters, according 

 to the nature of the fish contained in them. 



The fisheries at Comacchio date from a very early 

 period. They did not assume, however, any degree of 

 organization until 1229. Since that date, the waters 

 have been dyked out from those of the Adriatic, and the 

 canals formed which communicate with the Reno and 

 Volano mouths of the Po, and the Adriatic. They now 



