BOOK VIII. XVI. 8-xvii. I 



for deep-sea fish such as gilt-head and sea-braize 

 ^nd the Carthaginian and our own Itahan maigres, 

 but they are less suitable for shell-fish. On the other 

 hand a rocky sea provides excellent nourishment for 

 fishes which bear its name, that is, are called rock- 

 fish because they find shelter among the rocks, such 

 as merles and wrasse and likewise " black tails." <* 

 We must also know the different qualities both of 9 

 shores and of seas, lest we be deceived about foreign 

 fish ; for every fish cannot exist in every sea, the 

 sturgeon for example, which feeds in the depths of 

 the Pamphylian Sea '' and nowhere else, and the dory 

 in the Atlantic which in our municipality of Gades is 

 numbered amongst the noblest of fishes and which 

 by an ancient custom we call srew^, and the parrot wrasse 

 which is produced in great numbers on the coasts of 

 the whole of Asia Minor and Greece as far as Sicily 

 but has never swum into the Ligurian " sea nor past 

 the Gauls ** into the Iberian Sea ; * therefore, even if 10 

 they were captured and conveyed to our fish-ponds, 

 they could not long remain in our possession. Alone 

 of the valuable fish the lamprey, although a native 

 of the Tartessian and the Carpathian Sea, which is 

 very far away, in whatever sea it finds itself a guest 

 can thrive in strange waters. But the time has 

 come to speak of the situation of fish-ponds. 



XVII. We consider that incomparably the best Fish-ponds. 

 pond is one which is so situated that the incoming 

 tide of the sea expels the water of the previous tide 

 and does not allow any stale water to remain within 

 the enclosure ; for a pond most resembles the open 

 sea if it is stirred by the winds and its waters con- 

 stantly renewed and it cannot become warm, because 

 it keeps rolling up a wave of cold water from the 



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