THE TUNNY FISHERIES. 



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This fish is generally taken by drift-nets, usually 20 feet deep, and 120 long, well 

 buoyed with cork, but without weights to sink them. The meshes are made of fine tarred 

 twine. They are in their best condition in June and July. The ancients used to make 

 a sauce piquant from their fat, which was called garum, and sold for the equivalent of 

 sixteen shillings the pint. It was acrid and nauseous, but had the property of stimulating 

 jaded appetites. Seneca charged it with destroying the coats of the stomach, and injuring 





FISHING FOR TUNNY OFF THE COAST OF PROVENCE. 



the health of the high livers of his day. A traveller of the sixteenth century, Pierre 

 Belon, found it highly esteemed in Constantinople. 



The formidable sword-fish is also tolerable eating, especially when young, and there are 

 fisheries for its capture in the Mediterranean. The fishermen of Messina and Reggio fish 

 by night, using large boats carrying torches, and a mast, at the top of which one of 

 their number is stationed to announce the approach of their prey, which is harpooned by 

 a man standing in the bows. This fish attains a length of five or six feet, its sword forming 

 three-tenths of its length. It is one of the whale's natural enemies, and it objects even 

 to ships passing through its element. There are numerous cases cited of ship's bottoms 

 having been pierced by it. In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine a ship 

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