HALIEUTICA, or FISHING 



The tribes of the sea and the far scattered ranks of 

 all manner of fishes, the swimming brood of Amphi- 

 trite, will I declare, O Antoninus," sovereign majesty 

 of earth ; all that inhabit the watery flood and where 

 each dwells, their mating in the waters and their 

 birth, the life of fishes, their hates, their loves, their 

 •wiles,'' and the crafty de\'ices of the cunning fisher's 

 art — even all that men have devised against the 

 baffling fishes. Over the unknown sea they sail ^vith 

 daring heart and they have beheld the unseen deeps 

 and by their arts have mapped out the measures of 

 the sea, men more than human. The mountain-bred 

 Boar and the Bear the hunter sees, and, when he 

 confronts him watches him openly, whether to shoot 

 him afar or slay him at close quarters. Both beast 

 and man fight securely on the land, and the hounds 

 go with the hunter as guides to mark the quarry and 

 direct their masters to the very lair and attend close 

 at hand as helpers. To them winter brings no great 

 fear, nor simimer brings burning heat ; for hunters 

 have many shelters — shady thickets and chffs and 

 caves in the rock self-roofed ; many a silvery river, 

 too, stretching through the hills to quench thirst and 



» Of fishes, c/. //. ii. 53 f., iii. 9-2 ff. Editors, punctuating 

 at <t>iKoT7fTas, take (Soi/\ds of the devices of fishermen. 



201 



