FISHING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



eaten by the poorer classes ; but the filament or byssus, 

 by which it attaches itself to the rocks or other objects, 

 is about two feet long, and is used for making fabrics, 

 being very tough and glossy. 



The Greek and East Mediterranean fisheries are so 

 sadly neglected that there is really nothing to say about 

 them, all such work being overshadowed by the importance 

 attached to sponge-diving ; while the fisheries of Austria 

 do not differ from those of Italy except in magnitude. 

 On the African coast of the Sea, fresh-water fish are more 

 sought after than those from salt water, for the reason 

 that they are more easily come by. The fishermen of 

 Tripoli are industrious, and France has infused a certain 

 amount of energy into those of Tunisia ; but, while a 

 hand-net lowered haphazard into a pool or river will 

 bring up a day's supply of fish for a whole family nay, 

 while live fish are even thrown at a man's door, as some- 

 times happens in North Africa when an artesian well is 

 sunk, coast work is liable to be neglected. 



A word about Mediterranean line-fishing among the 

 French, Genoese and Venetians. Hand-lines are used 

 principally for maigres, eels, and rays, the work being done 

 from quays and small boats. Among the rays thus caught 

 is one which commands more sale to conjurers, naturalists, 

 and practical jokers than to ordinary consumers the 

 torpedo, or electric ray, which is so like the skate that it 

 is often mistaken for it, and which has under its gills, two 

 organs wherein is lodged an electrical apparatus capable 

 of giving twenty or thirty violent shocks per minute. 



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