THE TIUTNNY. 243 



An important object to Sardinia. 



chamber of the dead, and is composed of stronger 

 nets and anchors than the others. When a suf- 

 ficient quantity of thunnies is collected, they are 

 all made to pass through the other chambers 

 .into that of the dead, where the battle com- 

 mences. The fishermen, and sometimes people 

 of distinction, armed with a pike, there attack 

 these defenceless animals. Driven to despair the 

 latter become furious, throw up the water, break 

 the nets, and frequently dash 'out their brains 

 against the rocks, or the bouts of their adver- 



The thunny us to the people on the coasts of 

 the Mediterranean, what the herring is to the 

 nations of the north. The number of those that 

 enter that sea by the streights of Gibraltar, is 

 computed at four hundred thousand. Immense 

 quantities likewise enter by the Dardanelles from 

 the Black sea. Within the last thirty years the 

 thunny fishery has become an important national 

 object to Sardinia, about forty-five thousand be- 

 ing caught annually upon an average. All these 

 are taken by means of a dozen tonnaros. Jage* 

 man, in his " Letters on Italy," relates, that at 

 Porto Louis alone, the yearly produce of the 

 thunny fishery is twenty thousand Italian crowns. 

 Even in the time of the Greeks and Romans 

 the thunny fishery was carried on to a great 

 extent at the Cape of Byzantium, as we learn 

 from Aristotle, ./Elian , Sirabo, and Pliny. With 

 the decline of the arts and sciences this fishery 



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