CHAPTER X 



THE SCARUS — THE EARLIEST ACCLIMATISATION OF FISH 

 — THE FIRST NOTICE "FISHING PROHIBITED" 



From the wealth of copious yet conflicting accounts of this 

 famous fish in Greek and Roman writers, a large monograph 

 might be produced. ^ I restrict myself to a short notice of the 

 acclimatisation of the fish, and of the controversies on its 

 value, as (A) a Dainty, and (B) a Diet. 



The original habitat of the Scarus was in the seas off Asia 

 Minor, especially in the Carpathian Sea. During the Augustan 

 age it was rarely taken in Italian waters, and then only when 

 driven thither by storms. Thus Horace complains that neither 

 Lucrine oysters nor Rhomhi come his way, 



" aut scari, 

 Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus 

 Hiems ad hoc vertat mare." 



[Ep., II. 50 ff.) 



Pliny (IX. 29), after attributing to the Scarus the unique 

 characteristic of being herbivorous and never feeding on other 

 fish and asserting that of its own accord it never passes from 

 the Carpathian Sea beyond Cape Troas, goes on to tell us that 



^ " II est peu de poissons et meme d'animaux qui aient ete, pour les premiers 

 peuples civilises de I'Europe, I'objet de plus de recherches, d'attention, et 

 cl'eloges que le Scare " (Lacepede). On the family of the Labridcs (of which the 

 Scarus forms a genus) the same author asserts that Nature has not conferred 

 either strength or power, but they have received as their share of her favours, 

 agreeable proportions, great activity of fin, and adornment with all the colours 

 of the rainbow. Of the two cousins of the Scarus, the Tardus and the Julis, 

 his eulogy can not be omitted: " Le feu du diamant, du rubis, de la topaz, 

 de I'emeraude, du saphir, de I'amethyste, du grenat scintille sur leures ecailles 

 polies : et brille sur leure surface en gouttes, en croissants, en raies, en bandes, 

 en anneaux, en ceintures, en zones, en ondes ; il se mele c\ I'eclat de Tor et 

 d'argent qui y resplendit sur de grandes places, les teintes obscures, les aires 

 pales, et pour ainsi dire decolorees." Nicander of Thyatira [cp. Athen. 7, 

 113) states that there were two kinds of Scarus, one aUko^ of many diverse 

 colours, the other hvias of a dull grey tint. 



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