When I visited the wonderful wells at San Gimignano they were full of fish.
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From: "Chris J Brady" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:17 AM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Fish in wells and cisterns
> Last Xmas we were in Istanbul. There they have excavated out a Roman water
> cistern. Apparently the locals living above it had used it for 100s of
> years as a source of fish by drilling holes in their house floors and
> lowering down fishing lines. But the authorities had forgotten it was
> there. Its about 2,000 years old.
>
> They now use it for occassional folklorique music and dance concerts. The
> acoustics are amazing.
>
> The depth of water is now only about 3 feet, but there are still fish in
> it.
>
> See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern
>
> There are other Roman cisterns being excavated out and restored for
> tourists in Istanbul and areas around.
>
> Chris B.
>
> --- On Thu, 19/11/09, stephen buckley
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> From: stephen buckley <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Fish in wells and cisterns
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Date: Thursday, 19 November, 2009, 9:07
>>
>> Some years ago, there was
>> correspondence about putting fish in wells or cisterns that
>> provided domestic water supplies, in order to keep the water
>> sweet. The practice seems to have continued into the 20th
>> century, at least, is on record in Roman times, and may
>> relate to early references to salmon and trout in
>> wells/springs.
>>
>> There's a BBC page at the
>> moment with pictures of Droitwich's long-wave
>> transmitter building when it was first put up in the 1930s.
>> The valves for the transmitter needed to be cooled by large
>> amounts of water - 300,000 gallons of it. The tanks that
>> held the water were provided with goldfish, the purpose of
>> which was to stop algae growth. Plus ca change.
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/herefordandworcester/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8366000/8366520.stm
>>
>> Christine Buckley
>>
>>
>>
>>
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