The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-31
SICILY'S FUNNY FISHERY.

"The Favignana tunneries are formed of two long arms of net moored or . shore; the one to the west consisting o1 ! a coda or tail, is formed of net which, starting from the shore in g northerly direction for about twenty
 five hundred meters, joins the so-called
 funny island, where the actual cap ; ture of the fish takes place. From the
 island onward it is called the coda tl-
 ta,' or upper tail, and stretches paral-
 Tel to and almost as a prolongation of
 the former, being slightly to the east for
 about two thousand meters, always in a
 northerly direction, and terminating in
 three sides of a square called a cam
 pile.' The second wall or arm, called a
 costa is also a net which starts from
 the shore, but further to the east than
 the coda and stretches in a north
 easterly direction this arm is about
 and ends, like the 'cada alta in the
 campile,' its object being to proong the
 natural coast line. These two arms cir
 cumscribe the expanse of water in
 which the tunny are moving before en-
 tering the tunnery, and serve to indi-
 cate the direction they are to follow.
 "The nets are from thirty to forty
 meters high according to the depth of water, and they are held in position by
 @ special system of mooring lines A
 large hawser, called 'sommo.' kept
 af1oat by bundles of cork, is maintained
 in position by anchors placed at stated | intervals; to this hawser the net Is att | tached by means of vertical lines, called
 'modellari,' and the whole kept in ver- tical position by another hawser at the
 bottom, called the 'plombo,' which is weighted with large pieces of stone. Thus the wall of net can be trained in any required position, offering an ob- struction to the passage of the fish, which do not seek to pierce 1t, but fol-
 low the lines traced out by the obstacle. "The tunny coming from the west l meet the so-called coda alta or cos ] ta,' and are guided by these nets until , they strike against the coda sklrting NIlCH they 6HIbT ltltO lHe IuI1UeTY pro- , per, which is divided into several cham | bers, both on the east and west sides each having a special name; these chambers are closed or opened by rais- ing or lowering net coverings to aper- lures in their sides. Boats are con-
 stantly on the watch to give prompt mo- tice of the entrance of any tunny, and when these are passing the watchmen
 open the apertures of the various cham
 bers one by one and thus enclose the fish in the inner chambers, and in like
 manner finally oblige them to enter the last, the chamber of death. or 'coppo,' as it is called at Favignana. This lat ter unlike the other compartments, which are formed of wide and relative ly fragile netting, and only extend round the sides, is made of close and heavy hemp netting, lighter toward the east and closed and stronger toward the west, the bottom also being part of the same net which is held in position by strong hawsers and large bundles of cork, known as 'sagnazzi.'
 '"The fish often enter the preliminary chamber at night unknown to the watchers by simply going through the meshes of the netting. as they are at tracted by the others already inside, and once together they rarely come out again, as may and June Is their breeding season, and they willingly re- main enclosed within narrow limits Once the fish are gathered in the penul- innate chamber, everything is got ready l for the 'mattanza,' or haul, pontoon or J1or h1 po+I of "A ,e,iJ 1f the 'coppo' is brought over, and closes l that side of the death chamber by ] drawing the top of the net over the gun | vale, and the sides are also similarly | closed by a number of smaller boats, | thus forming rectansle; when this is | done the fish are allowed to pass into the final chamber, and another pontoon 1 takes up position on the eastern side, l parallel to and opposite the former one; | in this latter pontoon are all the men who haul up the net, thus obliging the 1 fish to go toward the western or thicker and stronger part of the net which Is allowed to pass over the pontoon as it is hauled along and finally falls back to it's original position astern of the east ern barge.
 "As the rectangle of boats gradually becomes more and more restricted, the fish are brought to the surface by the rising net, and their portentous leaps and struggles cover and hide the spec tator with spray and foam, which quickly from white to crimson as the iron hooks, on the end of short poles, are thrust into the fish when they come within reach of the men stationed 1n the western barge. Generally six men, armed with long and short poles are employed in hauling each tunny on board. Occasionally, when the fish is If exceptional dimensions, say weighing 'our hundred and fifty kilos, it is no easy matter to haul the creature on )oard When the catch is complete, he boats loaded with the fish are lowed 0 the factory, where the tunny are lrawn up an inclined plane to the heds by being hooked through the eye <; lnd are then ranged alongside one an- ] ,ther, their heads severed from their i bodies and the intestines, roe and milt | ] emoved and immediately placed in { ,rine. Each headless fish is then hung | :; y the tail for about eight hours, when , hey are cut up and boiled in copper S ats, after which the cooked pieces are , wifi olive ni lybo r..