CHAP, in.] ITALIAN PISCICULTURE. 71 



to by the people of China and which is worth noting as a 

 piscicultural novelty. These ingenious Celestials carry on a 

 business in selling and hatching fish-spawn, collecting the 

 impregnated eggs from various rivers and lakes, in order to 

 sell to the proprietors of canals and private ponds. When the 

 proper season for hatching arrives, they empty a hen's egg, by 

 means of a small aperture, sucking out the natural contents, 

 and then, after substituting fish-spawn, close up the opening. 

 The egg thus manipulated is placed for a few days under a hen ! 

 By and by the shell is broken, and the contents are placed in 

 a vessel of water, warmed by the heat of the sun only ; the 

 eggs speedily burst, and in a short time the young fish are able 

 to be transported to a lake or river of ordinary temperature, 

 where they are of course left to grow to maturity without being- 

 further noticed than to have a little food thrown to them. 



The luxurious Eomans achieved great wonders in the art 

 of fish-breeding, and were able to perform curious experiments 

 with the piscine inhabitants of their aquariums ; they were also 

 well versed in the arts of acclimatisation. A classic friend, 

 who is well versed in ancient fish lore, tells me that the great 

 Roman epicures could run their fish from ice-cold water into 

 boiling cauldrons without handling them ! They spared 

 neither labour nor money in order to gratify their palates. 

 The Italians sent to the shores of Britain for their oysters, and 

 then flavoured them in large quantities on artificial beds. The 

 value of a Eoman gentleman's fish in the palmy days of Italian 

 banqueting was represented by an enormous sum of money. 

 The stock kept up by Lucullus was never valued at a less 

 sum than 35,000 ! These classic lovers of good things had 

 pet breeds of fish in the same sense as gentlemen in the 

 present day have pet breeds of sheep or horned cattle. 

 Lucullus, for instance, to have such a valuable stock, must 

 have been in possession of unique varieties derived from curious 

 crosses, etc. Red mullet or fat carp, which sold for large prices, 



