94 TUNNY. 



Wilfred caused them to collect together all their eel-nets, and 

 to use them as a sean for catching fishes of all kinds." (This 

 remark of Bede, however, can only be supposed to apply to 

 the north of England; for as we have seen that the Phoenicians 

 in the earliest ages were accustomed to use a sean, and it is 

 known that they traded to the county of Cornwall before the 

 days of Moses, it is a reasonable guess that this sort of net 

 was introduced among our ancestors by that people. 



But, says Pliny, Avhen caught, the Tunny is cut into pieces, 

 of which the neck, belly, and throat are the most esteemed; 

 but they must be eaten only when quite fresh, and even then 

 are apt to cause severe attacks of flatulence. The other parts, 

 with the entire fish, are preserved in salt; and those pieces 

 which resemble an oaken board receive a name from that cir- 

 cumstance, and are called melandrya. The parts about the tail 

 are the lea-st esteemed. 



"The fisherman shall here his spoil divide 

 To different uses. Tliis when slightly dried 

 Is better meat; and tJbat when moist is good, 

 Whilst other parts are hardeu'd into food." 



Manilius, B. v. 



It appears from Aristotle that the Phoenicians, who lived at 

 Gades, in Spain, on one occasion sailed westward from the 

 Pillars of Hercules for four days, when at some shallow places 

 full of sea-weed, they found a very large quantity of Tunnies 

 of enormous size; which they caught and salted in jars, and 

 afterward conveyed them to Carthage, These fishes thus pre- 

 pared were not exported by the Carthaginians, but consumed 

 in their own country. — (Notes and Queries,) 



The example selected for description was one of four that 

 were taken in the middle of September, entangled in a drift 

 net shot for Pilchards. It measured four feet nine inches in 

 length, and two feet five inches in girth before the pectoral 

 fins; the shape conical from this part to the snout, which is 

 pointed; jaws equal when closed, but when open the lower a 

 little the longest; teeth numerous, in one row, small, and sunk 

 in the jaw. Eyes large and bright; nostrils small, midway 

 between the eyes and snout. Scales so closely set on the back 

 as not to be distinguished, but, although lying close, perceptible 

 on the sides and belly, appearing as if sunk in the surface: no 



