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Fisuine in AmericAn WarTERs. 
CHAPTER II. 
FISH-CULTURE IN EUROPE IN EARLY TIMES. 
Tue date when fish-culture was commenced in Europe is 
not definitely known. Its introduction there is generally at- 
tributed to the Romans, among whom, it is stated by several 
writers, the art approached a remarkable degree of perfec- 
tion, It is known to the. student of antique inventions that, 
in the palmy days of ancient Rome, great attention was paid 
to aquaculture, and, by means of canals cut from the sea and 
the Bay of Naples to the ornamental lakes and ponds of the 
wealthy patricians, eminently those at Tusculum, and at oth- 
er villas near Baiz, the fishes of the sea were invited by men 
of taste to spawn in their preserves, which they did in great 
numbers, as is related by Duval in respect to the extensive 
preserves of Lucullus. But after the spawning season, and 
when the spent fishes sought a return to the sea, they were 
intercepted by wicker weirs or wire gates, and there cap- 
tured and sold in the market! This last fact is sufficient ev- 
idence to prove to the modern angler or fish-culturist that 
the Romans knew little of the nature and habits of fish, or 
they would not have purchased spent fish, which is unwhole- 
some food. 
But in the evidence adduced thus far we see nothing to 
warrant the belief that the ancient Romans hatched fishes by 
the modern means of mingling the roe and milt of fishes, and 
placing them in a situation to be hatched. They did no more 
than invite or conduct fish from the sea to fresh-water feed- 
ing-grounds and spawning-beds. The Chinese had done 
more, for they divided rivers into spawning-beds, and before 
the spawn was hatched they removed it to hatching-vases. 
Among the articles exhumed from Pompeii and Hercula- 
