BOOK IX. xxvin. 6i-xxx. 64 



vvoolly bass, from the whiteness and softness of its 

 flesh. There are two kinds of haddock — the collyms, 

 wliich is the smallei-j and the bacchus, which is only 

 caught in deep water, and consequently is preferred 

 to the former. But among bass those caught in a 

 river are preferred. 



XXIX. Nowadays the first place is given to the The wasse. 

 wrasse, which is the only fish that is said to chew the 



cud and to feed on grasses and not on other fish. It 

 is especially common in the Carpathian Sea ; it 

 never of its own accord passes Cape Lectum in the 

 Troad. Some wrasse were imported from there in the 

 principate of Tiberius Claudius by one of his freed- 

 men, Optatus, Commander of the Fleet, and were 

 distributed and scattered about between the mouth 

 of the Tiber and the coast of Campania, care being 

 taken for about five years that when caught they 

 should be put back into the sea. Subsequently they 

 have been frequently found on the coast of Italy, 

 though not caught there before ; and thus gi-eed has 

 provided itself with additional dainties by cultivating 

 fish, and has bestowed on the sea a new denizen — 

 so that nobody must be surprised that foreign birds 

 breed at Rome. The next place belongs " at all 

 events to the hver of the lamprey that strange to say 

 the Lake of Constance in Raetia in the Central 

 Alps also produces to rival the marine variety. 



XXX. Of other fish of a good class the red mullet varieties of 

 stands first in popularity and also in plentifuhiess, '""^^* 

 though its size is moderate and it but rarely exceeds 



2 Ibs. in weight, nor does it grow larger when kept 

 in preserves and fishponds. This size is only pro- 

 duced by the northern ocean and in its westei'nmost 



" Cj. XIV 16 ante eum Raeticis prior mensa erat avis. 



205 



