CULTUEE OF EELS. 221 



produce, extending back over three centuries. The lagoons 

 of Comacchio afford a curious example of what may be 

 done by design and labor. This place was at one time a 

 great unproductive swamp, about one hundred and forty 

 miles in circumference, accessible to the waves of the sea, 

 where eels, leeches, and the other inhabitants of such 

 watery regions, sported about unmolested by the hand of 

 man ; and its inhabitants — the descendants of those who 

 first populated its various islands — isolated from the sur- 

 rounding civilization, and devoid of ambition, have long 

 been contented with their obscure lot, and have even re- 

 mained to this day without establishing any direct commu- 

 nication with surrounding countries. 



" The precise date at which the great lagoon of Comac- 

 chio was formed into a fish-pond is not known, but so early 

 as the year 1229, the inhabitants of the place — a commu- 

 nity of fishers as quaint, superstitious, and peculiar as those 

 of Buckie, on the Moray Firth, or any other ancient Scot- 

 tish fishing port — proclaimed Prince Azzo d'Este Lord of 

 Comacchio ; and from the time of this appointment the 

 place grew in prosperity, and the fisheries from that date 

 began to assume an organization and design which had not 

 before that time been their characteristic. The waters of 

 the lagoon were dyked out from those of the Adriatic, and 

 a series of canals and pools were formed suitable for the 

 requirements of the peculiar fishery carried on at the place, 

 all of which operations were greatly facilitated by the Reno 

 and Volano mouths of the Po, forming the side boundaries 

 of the great swamp ; and, as a chief feature of the place, 

 19* 



