Class IV.. RED SURMULLET, 



for luxurious inventions, firft hit upon the method 

 of fuffocating them in the exquifue Carthaginian * 

 pickle, and afterwards procured a rich fauce from 

 their liver6. This is the fame gentleman whom 

 Pliny, in another place, honors with the title of 

 Nepotum omnium altiffimus gurges -f , an exprefTior* 

 too forcible to be { rendered in our language. 



We have heard of this fpeci.es being taken on 

 the coaft of Scotland, but had no opportunity of 

 examining it; and whether it is found in the weft 

 of England with the other fpecies, or variety, we 



are not at this time informed. Salvianus makes 



< 



it a diftincl fpecies, and fays, that it is of a purple 

 color, ftriped with golden lines, and that it did not 

 commonly exceed a palm in length : no wonder 

 then that fuch a prodigy as one of fix pounds 

 fhould fo captivate the fancy of the Roman epicure, 



Mr. Ray eftablifhes feme other diftin£tions, fuch 

 as the nrft dorfal fin having nine rays, and the color 

 of that fin, the tail, and the pectoral fins, being of 

 a very pale purple. 



On thefe authorities we form different fpecies of 

 thefe fifh, having only examined what Salvianus 

 and Mr. Ray call the Mullus major ^ which w§ 

 defcribe under the title of 



# Garum Sociorum, vide p. 222, 

 f Lib, X. c, 48. 



Vol. in, ? MOim 



