UTILIZATION OF MARINE PRODUCTS OF CANADA 201 



mentioned by name. It has been facetiously suggested that there had 

 not yet been time after the Flood to assign names to the fishes, for 

 because of the very nature of that catastrophe there was no neces- 

 sity to make provision for the fishes when cataloging "every living thing 

 of all flesh, two of every sort . . . male and female" as they entered the 

 Ark. In the Indian legend of the Flood it was a fish, not a Deity, that 

 gave warning of the coming deluge; a fish, not a dove returning with an 

 olive leaf, signaled the recession of the waters and drew the ark-like 

 vessel to rest on a northern mountain. 



Among the many records of the popularity of fish the Bible ac- 

 count of the miracle of the loaves and fishes is well known. Fish played 

 an important role in the food of the early Egyptians; King Rameses III 

 was in the habit of presenting many thousands of fish to the temples for 

 the benefit of the priests' employees and the populace, and Rameses IV 

 maintained "officers of the Court Fishermen" whose duty it was to 

 provide large quantities of fish for the monarch, his entourage and serv- 

 ants. Carefully mummified fish bearing a royal cartouche have been 

 found, symbolizing the esteem bestowed upon them. The Egyptian city 

 Latopolis was named in honour of the fish Lates niloticus. But it was 

 in the heyday of the Greeks and Romans that fishes really came into 

 their own as luxuries. Seas and rivers were exploited far and wide for 

 their delicacies. Mullet, sturgeon and turbot commanded fabulous prices 

 for the epicurian table. Pliny records that although mullet weighing 

 under two pounds were plentiful and cheap, a large one was worth 

 8000 nummi (about $300), the value of nine bulls. The Greek come- 

 dians lamented that fish cost their weight in money, as was the case also 

 in Rome. Martial upbraided a glutton who sold a slave for about $50 

 to purchase a dinner, then complained of its lack of variety because near- 

 ly all the money was spent for one mullet. At a Greek Attic feast, 

 thirty-two kinds of fish were served; at a banquet given by the Roman 

 emperor Vitellius in honour of his brother no less than 2000 choice 

 fishes were served. A treatise of ten volumes on recipes for new dishes, 

 attributed to Apicius, describes many sauces for fish, one of which calls 

 for twenty-five ingredients. Some Roman nobles varied the custom of 

 taking a cognomen from the name of a victorious battle by assuming 

 a name derived from their favorite fish, e.g., Licinius Muraena, Sergius 

 Aurata. Among the Greeks, Diogenes the Cynic died from the eager 

 haste with which he devoured a raw polypus, and Philoxenus the Poet 

 after dressing, cooking, and eating all but the head of a 36-inch polypus 

 was warned by his physician that he had but six hours to live. Much 

 later, King Henry I of England died from overindulging in his favourite 

 dish of lampreys, a primitive fish at present much despised in Canada 



