12 PEAOTICAL TEOUT CULTURE. 



of nine or ten leagues, leaving only an opening 

 sufficiently wide for the passage of vessels. The 

 fish -spawn, in its passage down the river, is 

 caught upon these hurdles ; it is removed, placed 

 in vessels of water, and sold at once to the mer- 

 chants who transport it to various parts of the 

 Empire. " This statement is corroborated "by the 

 testimony of modern travelers, who speak of im- 

 pregnated spawn as a regular article of commerce. 

 The eggs thus obtained are in precisely the same 

 condition as those taken by the Ainsworth or 

 Collins spawning race, being naturally impreg- 

 nated ; and, strange to say, this naturally-impreg- 

 nated trout spawn is now sold at prices much 

 higher than that taken by hand, though in our 

 experience the proportion of properly impreg- 

 nated eggs is much greater by the latter process. 

 The enormous piscines of the Romans, both under 

 the Republic and the Empire, as well as the ac- 

 counts which have been transmitted to us of the 

 enormous prices paid for their contents (in one 

 case, that of Lucullus, four million sesterces, 

 $160,000, having been obtained), show that fish 

 culture, if not fish breeding, had at that period 

 attained gigantic proportions. We have full and 

 accurate accounts of the huge piscines, and their 

 voracious inhabitants, to whom even the flesh of 

 a well-fattened slave came not amiss; and it is 



