6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



to find sailors sufficient to mau theni, and especially experienced sailors. 

 It was, therefore, a matter of great importance to the governments of 

 Athens, Sparta, and other states, that the fisheries should be encour- 

 aged, especially the sea-fisheries, which, in our days also, are considered 

 the best nurseries of sailors for the navy. 



We must also take into account the fact that the greatest wealth of 

 Greece grewoutof her colonies. To maintain an intimate connection with 

 these was of the utmost importance; and for this end, also, the fisheries 

 were especially useful, since along the coasts of these colonies all those 

 fish were caught which move in schools. These fish formed an impor- 

 tant article of trade, not alone for the colonies, but also for the mother- 

 country, so that the former were necessarily dependent upon the latter. 

 The article for which there was the greatest and most widely-spread 

 demand, was salt-fish. All historians of that period agree in laying 

 stress on the great importance which this article held in commerce, 

 even before the time of Alexander, and during the last centuries of the 

 independence of Greece. 



But after wealth increased, and luxury and effeminacy took the place 

 of the original simplicity of life and manners, the fisheries developed an 

 inexhaustible supply of new articles of food, and the Black Sea (Pontus 

 Euximis) and the Sea of Azof (Palus Mceotis) became what the banks of 

 Newfoundland were to the maritime states of Europe during the first 

 centuries after their discovery. Besides fresh fish, dried and salt fish, 

 oil, glue, and a number of other articles, prepared in an ingenious man- 

 ner from the roe and the intestines of fish and of other animals living 

 in the water, as also a large number of peculiar kinds of medicine, pre- 

 pared from them, became the objects of large and extended mercantile 

 enterprises ; and all these were often sent, at an enormous expense, to 

 the most distant portions of the then known world. Hence it was that 

 the fisheries constantly increased in importance, so that thousands of 

 slaves became educated as sailors and fishermen. 



But the fisheries of Greece could not save her from decay. There 

 arose in Italy a new nation whose fixed purpose was to subdue the 

 world, which it ultimately accomplished. Borne, nursed by a wolf, never 

 renounced its wolf-nature. First, it ravished its neighbor's daughters 

 in order to secure wives; then their sons, iu order to secure slaves ; and, 

 finally, it carried its eagles over the beautiful land of the Greeks. But 

 Borne was practical, and its rule proved an advantage to the fisheries. 

 The most important question was how to raise sailors for the fleet. The 

 number of fishermen was not sufficient, and the crews of the Boman 

 galleys consisted more of rowers than of sailors ; but the latter were in 

 great demand, as they were more familiar with the element where battles 

 were to be fought. 



Not only politics, but religion also, proved advantageous to the fish- 

 eries, for the Licinian law decreed that on certain days of the year salt- 

 fish only could he eaten. The fishermen had also their special festival, 

 which was celebrated with great pomp on ihe 3d day of June. 



