HALIEUTICA, III. 83-103 



there are those called ground-nets and ball-nets and 

 the crooked trawl : innumerable are the various sorts 

 of such crafty-bosomed Nets. Others again have 

 their minds set rather upon Weels * which bring joy 

 to their masters while they sleep ** at ease, and great 

 gain attends on little toil. Others with the long 

 pronged Trident '^ wound the fish from the land or 

 from a ship as they ^%^ll. The due measure and right 

 ordering of all these they know certainly who con- 

 trive these things. 



Fishes, it seems, not only against one another 

 employ cunning wit and deceitful craft but often 

 also they deceive even the wise fishermen themselves 

 and escape from the might of hooks and from the 

 belly of the trawl when already caught in them, and 

 outrun the wits of men, outdoing them in craft, and 

 become a grief to fishermen. 



The Grey Mullet,<* when caught in the plaited arms 

 of the net, is not ignorant of the encircling snare, but 

 leaps up, eager to reach the surface of the water, 

 hasting with all his might to spring straight up with 

 nimble leap, and fails not of his wise purpose. For 

 often he lightly overleaps « in his rush the utmost 



<* H. ii. 642 n. 



* The leaping powers of the Grey Mullet {rbv raxi-ffTov tQv 

 ixOv<j)v A. 620 b 26) necessitate a special arrangement of nets ; 

 Apost. p. 34- " Les filets, simples ou corapliques, servent 

 a capturer tons les poissons, excepte les muges. qui, sauteurs 

 par excellence, peuvent d'un bond passer par-dessus le piege 

 tendu. Pour attraper ce poisson, on ajoute aux filets simples 

 et places perpendiculaireraent a la surface des eaux d'autres 

 filets compliques, lesquels, convenablement tendus par des 

 roseaux, se tiennent sur une ligne horizontale a celle de la 

 surface meme de Teau ; ainsi le muge en sautant pour 

 echapper au piege torabe sur ces autres filets aux mailles 

 desquels 11 se prend en se debattant." 



2 A S5Z 



