Focused on Holes

I'd like to talk a bit about the use of lakes and mires in Cantos XXI and XXII of the Inferno. When considered within the physical scheme of a big crater created by the fall of Lucifer, these small depressions compliment the intricacy of Hell in the same way that strainer holes add to a kitchen collender. (You're bound to see a lot of dishwashing references in light of the title of this blog.) These lakes and mires permit only certain sinners' souls to permeate them, in the same way that collender holes only allow certain forms of food to flow through them.

I wonder about this "holes within holes" landscape. One might liken it to a tidepool, complete with different forms of life in each pocket of a large watery basin. In these two cantos Dante investigates the plight of Barrators, while in previous cantos he spoke of the Wrathful as they suffered in the Styx Marsh. Could these be thought of as crabs and shrimp? Or is this analogy business going a little too far? Perhaps it would be better to investigate these miniature hells in terms of their depth: by including lakes and mires in Hell, isn't Dante creating "more" depth in circles that are seemingly flat? Dante often mentions that these lakes and mires are abysses of their own. If this is the case, isn't there a whole secondary measure of hellish depth we haven't considered? Where do these abysses lead, and should they be measured topographically along with the rest of Hell?