250 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



feet in length, which is often thrown over a space 

 measuring more than six or eight miles across. The 

 madrague is an actual park, with its walks and alleys 

 all terminating in a vast labyrinth, composed of 

 chambers, which open into one another, and all of 

 which lead to the chamber of death, or the corpou, 

 which is situated at the extremity of the structure. 

 This vast enclosure, the walls of which sometimes 

 extend upwards of three miles, is both secured and 

 raised by means of immense lines and nets weighted 

 with stones, supported by cork buoys, and secured 

 with anchors in such a manner as to resist the most 

 violent storms to which it would be exposed during 

 the usual fishing season. It may easily be con- 

 ceived that the materials constituting an apparatus 

 of this kind, are of enormous size and bulk ; on this 

 account a steam-boat is chartered every year to con- 

 vey the entire apparatus from Palermo to Favig- 

 nana. The arm of the sea which lies between this 

 island and Levanzo is peculiarly well adapted for 

 the establishment of a tonnara, as the Sicilians call it, 

 and the right of fishing in this locality alone is valued 

 at 60,000 francs. 



When first we arrived at Torre dell' Isola, we saw 

 this steamer on her way to Favignana, and from that 

 time, till we landed on the island, men had been 

 continually at work in fixing the madrague ; it 

 was now completed, and some tunnies had already 

 been seen within the first compartments of the ap- 

 paratus. We had a great desire to witness one of 

 these fishings, of which Joseph Vernet's picture 

 gives a tolerably good idea. The reports of our 



