64 Baron Cuvier on the Mullets of Europe. 



of glass that I may see it bound, that I may see it leap ! After 

 having for a long time praised it with extasy, it is taken from 

 the transparent vessel. Then the most expert instruct others. 

 See this fiery red, brighter than the finest vermilion ! look at 

 these inflated veins ! its belly may be compared to blood ! 

 Have you remarked the azure lustre which its gills reflect !'' &c. 



But it was not solely for the pleasure of seeing the varying 

 colours of the expiring mullet that the Roman epicures thus 

 treated it. The pleasure of eating it in the freshest possible 

 state was another inducement. " The fish is already rancid," 

 Seneca represents one of these rich gourmands saying, " were 

 it caught even this very day." — " But it it has been fished this 

 instant,'** was the answer. The reply follows, " I will not trust 

 you in an affair of so much importance ; I will believe nothing 

 but my own eyes. — Let them bring me the fish, that it may 

 die before me."" This precaution, according to Cuvier, was 

 necessary, since Apicius had taught that the mullet should 

 die in the garum of its associates, and a sauce be made of 

 its own liver. Galen says, indeed, that the liver of the 

 mullet was accounted the most delicious morsel, and that it 

 was pounded in wine for a seasoning to the fish, but that this 

 sauce was not much to his taste. 



In after periods this passion for mullets had much diminish- 

 ed, for Macrobius assures us that in his time they were often 

 seen above 2 lbs. weight, but that the excessive prices of for- 

 mer ages were unknown. At present mullets, without being the 

 object of cares so extraordinary, or prices so exorbitant, are 

 yet with reason accounted among the best fishes of the sea. 

 Those of Provence, and chiefly those of Toulon, are particu- 

 larly celebrated, llieir flesh is white, firm, friable, agreeable 

 to the taste, and is digested easily, because it is not fat. 



Our seas, says Cuvier, produce two species of these fishes, 

 which Salviani first distinguished and figured. The smallest 

 of these, with the snout more vertical, and of a deeper purple 

 red than the other {Mullus harbatus, Lin.) is most abundant 

 in the Mediterranean, and the only one which Belon and Ron- 

 deletius has represented. The other (Mullus surmuletus, 

 Lin.) is larger, with the snout more oblique, and the red in- 

 terrupted by longitudinal yellow lines. It is much more com- 



