18 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



wards!' 1 "The flesh of this animal was generally found to be very hard, 

 but its eggs were eaten prepared in different ways and were considered a 

 great delicacy. They were also put to various medicinal uses ; thus they 

 were recommended for hectic and feverish persons ; and Galenus's teacher, 

 JErkhirion, advises those who have been bitten by a mad dog, to roast 

 alive one of that kind of crawfish, which in Greek is called " KarJdnos," 

 and to turn towards the constellation Canis, when the sun passes through 

 the sign of Leo," &c. 



* 



FISH, OYSTER, AND SNAIL PONDS. 



As to these ponds, we give the information found in Pliny, Paul Jovius, 

 and the Frenchman Coste in his extremely interesting work, Voyage 

 d'exploration sur le littoral de la France et de lTtalie, &c, in that por- 

 tion of the book where he speaks of the raising of oysters in Lake Fusa- 

 ro, p. 97. 



From the passage quoted from Pliny, we see that the Romans had fish- 

 ponds for various kind of fish, but that the muraena, on account of its 

 peculiar tenacity of life, was best suited for being thus kept. Several 

 such ponds are mentioned as belonging to noted persons. Spawning- 

 ponds, however, such as are now found in great numbers on the coast of 

 France, where the fish are raised and fattened till they are fit to be sent 

 away, seem to have been unknown. It would appear that persons were 

 satisfied with putting those fish in ponds that were caught in the sea, to 

 have them on hand, as it were, to fill an order at any time ; although 

 many circumstances seem to favor the opinion that, at least as far as 

 the muroenas were concerned, many of these fish were bred and raised 

 in these very ponds. Though there are not sufficient grounds to prove 

 that the Romans had a regular system of breeding and raising fish, we 

 know enough to conclude that the raising of oysters had reached such 

 a degree of perfection as to command our highest admiration. 



Pliny tells us that the first inventor of oyster-ponds was a certain Ser- 

 gius Orata, who in the time of L. Crassus lived near JBajoe. What led 

 him to this invention was not gluttony, but a spirit of speculation. He 

 had made a good deal of money by his bathing establishment, and by 

 redecorating old country-houses so as to make them look like new ones, 

 when he conceived the project of speculating in oysters. At that time 

 the existence of oysters on the English coasts was not known, and Brun- 

 dusium, which had almost the exclusive privilege of supplying the whole 

 of Italy with the article, was so far from Roine, quite in the southeastern 

 part of the peninsula, that the oysters reached the capital in a very poor 

 condition, often completely spoiled. It is well known that oysters and 

 fish are of a better quality in some localities than in others. Thus the 

 best lupus or basse* is found in the river Tiber between the two bridges; 

 the best turbots in Ravenna; the best muraenas in Sicily, &c. Orata found 

 in Lake Lucrinus a place specially favorable for his undertaking. This 



* Lupus of the aucieuts, or Lnbrax lupus of naturalists. 



