AT LAKE FUSARO. 



259 



feet in depth, connects it with the sea. It is now called 

 the Foce di Fusaro. 



The reader will have understood, from our remarks on 

 the oyster's mode of reproduction, the importance that its 

 ova or spat should be deposited on some solid object. 

 This principle was kept in view when Lake Fusaro was 

 converted into an " oyster-farm." 



Upon the bed of the lake, and along its margin, small 

 pyramidal piles of stones have been erected, on which are 



CHAIN OF SUSPENDED FAGOTS. 



deposited the young oysters imported from the neighbour- 

 ing Gulf of Otranto. Each heap is surrounded by a ring 

 of piles, driven in close to one another, and rising slightly 

 above the surface of the water. Other piles are set in 

 long rows, and bound together by ropes, to which fagots 

 of young wood hang suspended. In the spawning-season, 

 which begins early in May, the oysters on the artificial 

 rockeries shed the thousands of spat carefully incubated 



