192 PROSE HALIETJTICS. 



telegraph the earliest intelligence of an approaching shoal. 

 As soon as his practised eye discerns the expected column^ 

 he communicates to the attentive crews below by means 

 of a flag the direction in which to prepare for its recep- 

 tion ; they, always on the alert for the signal, no sooner 

 perceive it, than with ' all the precision of a troop of dis- 

 ciplined soldiers or a band of weU-trained musicians,' the 

 whole party puts to sea, each boat under the command 

 of its captain, and with great regularity and despatch 

 shoot their nets in advance of the fish. In this way a 

 vast hempen wall is quickly thrown obliquely athwart 

 the course of the coasting thunny, which proceeding in 

 a straight line, leap, without looking into its folds, and 

 are thus completely 'amphibolized' and caught.' Oppian 

 speaks of some very intricate thuimy-nets forming quite 

 a town, in which may be traced strong bulwarks, narrow 

 portals, large squares, broad streets, and blind alleys in- 

 numerable. Into this fatal ambuscade, he tells us, the 

 devoted fish advance with all the confidence of a besieging 

 army entering a capitulating fort. The order they ob- 

 serve is most methodic : the van is led by the mighty 

 orcyni, the Trpb^x.aypi,, veterans of the troop ; immediately 

 after them follow the black cohorts of mature thunnies, 

 while youthful pelamyds and immature auxidae bring up 

 the rear. When the whole corps has once entered the 

 fatal embouchure, it is quickly lost in the intricacies of 

 the vast spreading labyrinth, and being unable to retreat, 

 are summarily despatched one after another by the cun- 

 ning men who planned the decoy. 



It was formerly universally believed that, owing to some 

 obliquity of vision, the capture of thunny was more easy 

 than that of any other fish. What the peculiar imper- 

 fection was, authors were not agreed ;* some supposed it 



* Tlie hazy vision of these fish seems to have been considered 



