200 PEOSE HALIETJTICS. 



Monte Pelegrino more inviting — that we put off in a 

 boat from the bay of Palermo, and ordered our barca- 

 roles to puU for the tonnaro, or place where the madrague 

 lay, about a mile from shore : to seaward all was smoothj 

 not a ripple broke the oleaginous expanse stretched before 

 us, mapped with floating corks, and indicating, as accu- 

 rately as on a ground- plan, the whole extent and figure 

 of the mighty decoy — a town indeed in size : having 

 pulled from one end to the other of the long faubourg, 

 to the first submarine barrier, and then glided over it, 

 we rowed with increased speed between battlements of 

 cork and motionless buoys, and soon came to the spot, 

 towards which some boats a little in advance of our own 

 had been driving a shoal of thunnies, like a flock of timid 

 sheep. 'Ecco la camera della morte; siamo giunti !' 

 exclaimed both rowers at once, shipping their oars, and 

 staring down into the depths to see what might be there: 

 we did the same ; but not discovering anything, the men 

 resumed the oars, and in a few seconds laid us alongside 

 an anchored barge, — one of two, which were placed as 

 guards over each end of the ' chamber of death.' The 

 first served as the point d'appui for the nets, which were 

 being worked up from the near side of the opposite vessel. 

 A crowd of fishermen were busy tugging away at what 

 seemed to our impatience an endless cordage; by the 

 shortening of which, however, as the boat duly received 

 it, layer after layer, coU upon coU, and fold upon fold, 

 they were slowly bringing up the reticulated wall from 

 the bottom. Whilst waiting the result we had time to 

 notice the fine proportions of the men, who, leaning over 

 the sides of the boat, or standing on its benches, exhibited 

 their athletic and agile forms picturesquely grouped and 

 engaged in all those varieties of muscular action which 

 each man's share in the labours severally demanded. A 

 fine figure is, according to Oppian, a prime qualification 

 in a fisherman : ~ 



