20 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Hirpiuus was the first in the Tarquiniaii district to establish snail- 

 ponds. He arranged them in separate divisions : one for the white 

 snails from Eeatiue, one for the Illyrian snails distinguished by their 

 great size, one for the African snails, which are very fruitful, and 

 another for the Solitanian snails, which are the finest of all. He even 

 invented a special kind of food for them, prepared of thick must, flour, 

 and other ingredients, and by means of this artificial diet they grew to 

 an enormous size. 



Galenus says that, as a general thing, oysters, especially if eaten raw, 

 produce witty thoughts. Pliny attributes to them a purging property, 

 and advises people to use the burnt shells as a remedy for dysentery. 



In addition to the above, a large number of mussels and garden-snails 

 were eaten, such as the blue mussel, "purpura?," " buccina," " aures," 

 " digiti," " ungues," " patellar ; " and Horace says, " effeminate Taren- 

 tum boasts of her large scallops." The ancients knew how to prepare 

 even sea-urchins and star-fish as dainty dishes. 



The above may serve to give some idea of the state of the fisheries 

 among the ancient Greeks and Eoinans, as well as the different branches 

 of trade and industry connected therewith ; and we certainly feel con- 

 strained to admit that they had attained to an astonishing degree of 

 perfection. The fall of the empire also brought about the decline of the 

 fisheries. Eude hordes of barbarians overran the empire in overwhelm- 

 ing numbers, and destroyed a refined, and, in many cases, effeminate, 

 but at the same time beautiful, product of the oldest civilization. 



I close these remarks with the following words of the excellent Noel 

 de la Moriniere : " The conquest of so many countries which were forced 

 to accept laws made for them by the barbarians, sundered all commercial 

 ties, after having destroyed the industry and art which gave them life. 

 We therefore see the most important fishery of the Mediterranean, the 

 tunny-fishery, after being entirely destroyed, revived again after long ages. 



" In the history of the later emperors, we hear no longer of those 

 costly fish which the luxury of ihe wealthy procure from distant coun- 

 tries, and which gave luster and the greatest enjoyment to their ban- 

 quets. The fish-ponds which once swallowed princely fortunes, stand 

 empty and deserted. The time of extravagance has passed, and strange 

 and morbid fancies have lost their sway. People can procure only with 

 great trouble the most common fisb, in order to fulfill the ritual of their 

 religion. Fishing is carried on only by the poor inhabitants of the 

 coasts, whose abject poverty is their best protection against the plunder- 

 ing invaders, or who only manage to carry on their miserable trade, un- 

 disturbed, by retiring to lonely nooks, such as the lagoons near Venice, 

 or the swamps of Narbonne, thus interposing large and almost impene- 

 trable morasses between themselves and their avaricious pursuers." 



Public interest is now directed toward the North, and here we also 

 find fisheries springing up anew, which soon grew to an astonishing ex- 

 tent and won for themselves a new and grand commerce ; so that Sergius 

 Orata would still not be entirely out of place among us. 



