Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/76

 these the port dues were so heavy as to be well nigh ruinous, and the skippers, poor men of Livorno and Genoa for the most part, were scarcely able to scrape a profit from their cargoes. The port dues and shipping taxes have crippled and nearly destroyed all the commerce of the minor merchantmen of Italy, and they have struck a death-blow to the humble industries of the little Maremmano sea-towns.

Before the independence, of which the Maremma heard much but understood little, Santa Tarsilla had been very feeble, but able to get its own living; since then it had become paralysed, and was perishing off the face of the earth.

The waters teemed with fish; only looking down from the side of a boat you could see fish, by the thousand, gleaming like gold and silver in those bright transparent depths, with the feathery weeds, and the branches of coral. There was always fish indeed; but fish, though it will serve to fill your own mouth, and the mouths of your children, is of very little further use unless there be buyers for it. The waters teemed, the nets ran over, but as often as not the living spoils of the sea were thrown down and