310 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



This great augmentation of value has naturally directed 

 attention to the creation of new oyster-banks, and to the better 

 management of those already existing, and fortunately the 

 manner in which the mollusc propagates renders its culture in 

 appropriate localities a by no means difficult task. 



The oyster spawns from June to September. Instead of im 

 mediately abandoning its eggs to their fate, as is the case with 

 so many sea-animals, it keeps them for a time in the folds of its 

 mantle, between the branchial lamellae, and it is only after having 

 thus acquired a more perfect development that the microscopic 

 larvae, furnished with a swimming apparatus and eyes, emerge 

 from the shell, and are then driven about by the floods and 

 currents, until they find some solid body to which they attach 

 themselves for life. In this manner the oyster produces in one 

 single summer a couple of millions of young, which, however, 

 mostly perish during the first wandering stage of their existence. 

 Thus we see what rich rewards may be gained by protecting and 

 fixing the oyster-larvse at an early date ; and that this can be 

 done in many places without any great outlay of capital is 

 proved to us by successful examples both in ancient and modern 

 times. 



Between the Lucrine Lake, the ruins of Cumse, where of yore 

 the Sibyl uttered her ambiguous oracles, and the promontory of 

 Misenum, lies a small salt-water lake, about a league in cir- 

 cumference, generally from three to six feet deep, and reposing 

 on a volcanic, black, and muddy bottom. This is the old Acheron 

 of Virgil, the present Fusaro. Over its whole extent are spread 

 from space to space great heaps of stones, that have been 

 originally stocked with oysters brought from Tarentum. Bound 

 each of these artificial mounds stakes are driven into the ground, 

 tolerably near each other, and projecting from the water, so as 

 to be pulled up easily. Other stakes stand in long rows several 

 feet apart, and are united by ropes, from which bundles of brush- 

 wood hang down into the water. All these arrangements are 

 intended to fix the oyster-dust, that annually escapes from the 

 parental shells, and to afford it a vast number of points to which 

 it may attach itself. After two or three years the microscopic 

 larvae have grown into edible oysters. Then, at the proper 

 season, the stakes and brushwood bundles are taken out of 

 the water, and after the ripe berries of the marine vineyard 



