112 COJLUON TROUT. 



from o:ie place; the livers of Scari from another, and oysters, even from so remote a spot 

 as our Sandwich ; but there was, and is, a fashion in the article of good living. The 

 Romans seem to have despised the Trout, the Piper, and the Doree ; and we believe Mr. 

 Ouin himself, would have resigned the rich paps of a pregnant sow, the heels of camels, and 

 the tongues of flamingoes, though dressed by Heliogabalus' cooks, for a good jowl of Salmon 

 with lobster sauce." — (P. 399-400, ed. 1812.) 



Ausonius is very brief in his notice of the Trout ; he merely mentions its beauty, and 

 makes no allusion to the quality of its flesh as an article of food — 



"Purpureisque Salar stellatus tergore guttis." 

 "With purple spots the Salar's back is starred." 



Ausonius makes use of the term Fa no, but it is not easy to determine what species he 

 intended — 



"Toque inter species geminas, neutrumque et utrumque 

 Qui nee dum Salmo, nee jam Salar, ambiguusque 

 Amborum, medio Fario intercepte sub kvo." (128 — 150.) 



"Salmon or salar, I'll pronounce thee neither 

 A doubtful kind, that may be none, or either, 

 Fario, when stopt in middle growth." 



Under the name of Fario, Ausonius may be referring to the grilse state of the Salmo trutta, 

 but it is not po.ssible to speak with any degree of certainty. 



If the Salmon be rightly called the King of Fresh-water Fish, the Common Trout may, 

 I think, fairly claim the second place of dignity; for whether we regard the Trout in respect 

 of form and beauty of colouring, or in that of affording most excellent sport, or as a most 

 nourishing and delicious fish for the breakfast or dinner table; in all respects the Trout is 

 eminently good. 



The earliest notice of the art of fly-fishing occurs in the writings of ^Elian, who lived 

 about the middle of the third century of the Christian era. In his chapter Dc pcculiari quodain 

 piscaiii in Macedonia, he gives the following account, which I will translate from the Greek 

 version of Jacobs' edition of the Natura Animalium. I think the fish he mentions are Trout. 



"There is a river called Astreeus, flowing midway between Berea and Thessalonica, in which 

 are produced certain spotted fish {ix^ve'i rriv xpoav KaraariKToi) — the Macedonians must give their 

 name — whose food consists of insects which fly about the river. These insects are dissimilar 

 to all other kinds found elsewhere; they are not like wasps, nor would one naturally compare 

 them with the flies called cpliciiicra, nor do they resemble bees, but they possess characters 

 common to all these creatures ; for they are as impudent as flies, as large as the anthcdoii, 

 of the same colour as wasps, and they buzz like bees. The natives call this insect the hippurus. 

 As these flies float on the top of the water in pursuit of their food, they attract the notice 

 of the fish, which swim upon them. When a fish spies one of these insects on the top of the 

 water, it swims quietly underneath it, taking care not to agitate the surface, lest it should 

 scare away the prey; so approaching it, as it were under its shadow, it opens its mouth and 

 gulps It down, just as a wolf seizes a sheep from the flock, or an eagle a goose from the 

 yard ; and having done this it swims away beneath the ripple. The fishermen are aware of 

 all this ; but they do not use these flies for bait, because handling would destroy their natural 

 colour, injure the wings, and spoil them as a lure. On this account the natural insect is in 

 ill repute with the fishermen, who cannot make use of it. They manage to circumvent the 

 fish, however, by the following clever piscatorial device: they cover a hook with red wool, 

 and upon this they fasten two feathers of a waxy appearance, which grow under a cock's 



