SEEGIDS OEA.TA. 239 



concerned. At the instigation of the French Government, he 

 made a voyage of exploration round the coasts of France and 

 Italy, in order to inquire into the condition of the sear-fisheries, 

 which were, it was thought, in a declining condition. It was 

 his "mission," and he fulfilled it very well, to see 'how these 

 marine fisheries could be artificially aided, as the fresh-water 

 fisheries had been aided through the re-discovery by Joseph 

 Edmy of the long-forgotten plan of pisciculture, as already 

 detailed in a preceding portion of this work, 



The breeding of oysters was a business pursued with great 

 assiduity during what I have called the gastronomic age of 

 Italy, the period when LucuUus kept a stock of fish valued at 

 £50,000 sterling, and Sergius Grata invented the art of oyster- 

 culture. There is not a great deal known about this ancient 

 gentleman, except that he was an epicure of most refined taste 

 (the " master of luxury " he was called in his own day), and 

 some writers of the period thought him a very greedy person, 

 a kind of dealer in shell-fish. It was thought also that he was 

 a housebroker or person who bought or built houses, and 

 having improved them, sold them to considerable advantage. 

 He received, however, an excellent character, while standing 

 his trial for using the public waters of Lake Lucrinus for his 

 own private use, from his advocate Lucinus Orassus, who said 

 that the revenue officer who prevented Grata was mistaken if 

 he thought that gentleman would dispense with his oysters, 

 even if he was driven from the Lake of Lucrinus, for, rather 

 than not enjoy his molluscous luxury, he would grow them on 

 the tops of his houses. 



Lake Fusaro, of which I give a kind of bird's-eye view, is 

 highly interesting to all who take an interest in the prosperity 

 of the fisheries, as the first seat of oyster-culture. It is the 

 Avemus of Yirgil, and is a black volcanic-looking pool of water, 

 about a league in circumference, which lies between the site of 

 the Lucrine Lake — the lake used by Grata — and the ruins of 

 the town of Gumse. It is stiU extant, being even now, as I have 

 said, devoted to the highly profitable art of oyster-farming, yield- 

 ing, as has often been published, from this source an annual 

 revenue of about £1200. This classic sheet of water was at one 

 time surrounded by the villas of the wealthy Italians, who fre- 

 quented the place for the joint benefit of the sea-water baths, 

 and the sheU-fish commissariat, which had been established in 

 the two lakes (Avernus and Lucrine). The place, which, before 



