4 FISH CULTUEE. 



destined for the breeding of oysters. The Lake of 

 Fusaro, a salt lake between the ruins of Cumse and 

 the promontory of Misenum (the Avernus of the 

 ancients ; the Acheron of Virgil) and of which I- 

 may speak hereafter, furnishes another proof of the 

 skill which the ancient Eomans brought to bear upon 

 this favoured art. As regards the practice of piscicul- 

 ture later on and during the middle ages, we have 

 abundant evidences of the high estimation in which 

 it was held by the monks. Indeed, it became a 

 matter of serious importance to them, from the sup- 

 posed requirements of their religion, and the natural 

 difficulties which often presented themselves to the 

 providing of a supply of fish at all adequate to 

 the wants imposed by the fasts they observed. 

 M. Jourdier attributes to Dom Pinchon, a monk of 

 the Abbey of Eeome, who lived in the fourteenth 

 century, the discovery of the method of breeding and 

 rearing fish by means of wooden boxes. The ends 

 of these boxes were of wicker-work, and in the bottom 

 of them sand was deposited ; excavations were made 

 in the sand, and the eggs of the fish deposited therein, 

 a gentle stream of water being then turned on, and run 

 through the boxes. As far as I can understand this 

 method, which seems very simple, there is little dif- 

 ference between it and the plan at present adopted. 



