350 FISHING IN AMEEICAN WATERS. 



CHAPTER II. 



FISH-CULTURE IN EUROPE IN EARLY TIMES. 



THE date when fish-culture was commenced in Europe is 

 not definitely known. Its introduction there is generally at- 

 tributed to the Romans, among whom, it is stated by several 

 writers, the art approached a remarkable degree of perfec- 

 tion. It is known to the student of antique inventions that > 

 in the palmy days of ancient Rome, great attention was paid 

 to aquaculture, and, by means of canals cut from the sea and 

 the Bay of Naples to the ornamental lakes and ponds of the 

 wealthy patricians, eminently those at Tusculum, and at oth- 

 er villas near Baia3, the fishes of the sea were invited by men 

 of taste to spawn in their preserves, which they did in great 

 numbers, as is related by Dirndl in respect to the extensive 

 preserves of Lucullus. But after the spawning season, and 

 when the spent fishes sought a return to the sea, they were 

 intercepted by wicker weirs or wire gates, and there cap- 

 tured and sold in the market ! This last fact is sufficient ev- 

 idence to prove to the modern angler or fish-culturist that 

 the Romans knew little of the nature and habits of fish, or 

 they would not have purchased spent fish, which is unwhole- 

 some food. 



But in the evidence adduced thus far we see nothing to 

 warrant the belief that the ancient Romans hatched fishes by 

 the modern means of mingling the roe and milt of fishes, and 

 placing them in a situation to be hatched. They did no more 

 than invite or conduct fish from the sea to fresh-water feed- 

 ing-grounds and spawning - beds. The Chinese had done 

 more, for they divided rivers into spawning-beds, and before 

 the spawn was hatched they removed it to hatching-vases. 



Among the articles exhumed from Pompeii and Hercula- 



