6 THE HISTORY OF AQUARIA. 



to more than 32,ooo/. So extensive were these 

 ponds, and so well stocked, that the same gossipy 

 naturalist tells us the fish alone from the ponds of 

 Lucullus, the well-known gourmand, fetched a sum as 

 large as that just named ! The Romans were capital 

 judges of another modern delicacy, the oyster, the 

 modern demand for which has been run almost as 

 high as it was nearly two thousand years ago. Reser- 

 voirs were constructed for the preservation of oysters, 

 and large sums of money were laid out in getting 

 stock and taking proper care of them. 



The Chinese have long kept live fish for the table 

 and market. Our well-known gold and silver fish 

 (Cyprinus auratus) come from their country, and 

 were introduced into Europe as ornamental living 

 objects more than two centuries ago. Pepys perhaps 

 refers to these in his ' Diary,' as a " fine rarity ; of fishes 

 .kept in a glass of water, that will live so for ever 

 and finely marked they are, being foreign." Both the 

 Japanese and Chinese have long kept these fish in 

 artificial tanks and glasses for amusement, and have 

 succeeded in roughly training them. During the 

 middle ages, fish-ponds were esteemed a necessary 

 appurtenance to monasteries, abbeys, and even halls. 

 The long abstinence from all animal food, except fish, 

 during Lent, and the many other fasting days imposed 

 by the Church, rendered it necessary that fish of some 

 sort should be easily available for use. The moats 

 which ran round castles or other baronial buildings, 



