198 PEOSE HALIETJTICS. 



notable night's capture of a hundred and sixty thousand 

 thunny, each weighing on an average twenty-five pounds, 

 but many reaching a hundred and fifty. The madrague, 

 like Oppian's floating city (of which it is probably only a 

 modifijcation and improvement) forms a vast decoy, stretch- 

 ing out over a large acreage of water ; unlike the tonnaire, 

 it is a fixture, and always on service, except when it is 

 removed for necessary repairs, like a vessel taken into 

 dock. Here the door of destiay stands ever open, and of 

 the unwary who enter none ever return ; like the Bridge 

 of Sighs, it is crossed but once ; and the inscription which 

 Dante has placed over the awful portals of his Hell, ' AU 

 hope abandon, ye that enter here,'^ smts well with the 

 character of its precincts. The plan of its construction 

 is simple and easily understood: first comes a long broad 

 avenue of from a quarter to half a nule in length, formed 

 by the shore on one side, and a parallel line of deep-sunk 

 nets, enclosing whatever enters it, on the other ; at the 

 end of this ' high road to ruin,' another hempen wall, at 

 right angles with the shore, ojQPers an obstruction to the 

 advanciag fish, save only in the centre, where a narrow 

 passage permits the devoted band to pass onward in the 

 direction of their doom ; a second insidious entrance 

 through another central aperture of a like nature secures 

 a further progress, and when this is cleared, a third en- 

 closure presents itself; and thus on and on swim the de- 

 voted fish, getting as they proceed deeper into the intri- 

 cacies of a hopeless labyrinth, which terminates at last 

 in an apartment with a meshed bottom, well styled the 

 ' camera della morte.' To this very door of death, the 

 thunny who are so unfortunate as once to have entered 

 the avenue, are hunted on by two boats stationed in the 

 rear, whose crews drag a net after the fish, to prevent 

 their backing out, which, from the incessant shouting 

 and noise of all sorts kept up to scare them, these timid 

 creatures seldom attempt. There is something extremely 



