Between the Lucrine Lake, the ruins of Cumæ, where of yore the Sibyl uttered her ambiguous oracles, and the promontory of Misenum, lies a small salt-water lake, about a league in circumference, generally from three to six feet deep, and reposing on a volcanic, black, and muddy bottom. This is the old Acheron of Virgil, the present Fusaro. Over its whole extent are spread from space to space great heaps of stones, that have been originally stocked with oysters brought from Tarentum. Round each of these artificial mounds stakes are driven into the ground, tolerably near each other, and projecting from the water, so as to be pulled up easily. Other stakes stand in long rows several feet apart, and are united by ropes, from which bundles of brushwood hang down into the water. All these arrangements are intended to fix the _oyster-dust_, that annually escapes from the parental shells, and to afford it a vast number of points to which it may attach itself. After two or three years the microscopic larvæ have grown into edible oysters. Then, at the proper season, the stakes and brushwood bundles are taken out of the water, and after the ripe berries of the marine vineyard have been plucked, they are again immersed into the lake, until a new generation brings a new harvest. Thus the indolent Neapolitans have for ages given an example which has but recently been imitated by the men of the North. In 1858 a mason named Beef (a name which, if not misspelt, would seem to point out an English origin) inaugurated the modern era of oyster cultivation, at the island of Ré, near La Rochelle, by laying down a few bushels of growing oysters among a quantity of large stones on the fore shore. His success encouraged his neighbours to follow his example, so that now already upwards of 4,000 beds or _claires_ extend along the coast. Between March and May 1859 a quantity of oysters taken from different parts of the sea were distributed in ten longitudinal beds in the Bay of St. Brieux, on the coast of Brittany. The bottom was previously covered with old oyster-shells and boughs of trees arranged like fascines, which afford a capital holding-ground for the spat. In 1860 three of the fascines were taken up indiscriminately from one of the banks, and found to contain about 20,000 oysters each, of from one inch to two inches in diameter. The total expense for forming the above bank was 221 francs, and reckoning the number of oysters on each of the 300 fascines laid down on it at only 10,000, these sold at the low price of 20 francs a thousand would produce the sum of 60,000 francs, thus yielding a larger profit than any other known branch of industry.