206 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



Galen reckons amongst fish of hard fibre whales, dol- 

 phins, seals, and large old thunny, which last, he says, 

 come very near to them in indigestibility, though they 

 are not so palatable. Besides those dijBferences which 

 age and size induce ia the flavour and condition of this 

 fish, must be further added the modifying influences of 

 site. Archestratus, the Grecian Quin, who travelled over 

 the world for his stomach's sake, has left it upon record, 

 to benefit posterity, that the thunny of Constantinople, 

 Carystium, and Sicily, are not to be despised, though 

 they are exceeded by those of Hipponium, ia Italy; 

 whilst he has bracketed off the Samian specimens as in- 

 efiably good, and only fit to be put upon Jupiter's table 

 or his own. The part most in esteem fresh was the 

 beUy: 



Basse, conger's head, and tliunny's under side,* 



Are luxuries to slender means denied, 



is only one of many Greek fragmentary attestations which 

 might be cited to prove the high relish for this particular 

 cut of the thunny. Athenseus recommends it iv fivTreorS, 

 — i. e. stuffed with onions and some other of the more 

 acrid condiments, to which, for indigestibility, our goose 

 and onions must be a light dish. The Ligurians, says 

 Jovius, eat it under the name of ' azeminum,' stewed in 

 oil and Corsican wine with pounded pepper and chopped 

 onion ; another capital recipe, we should fancy, if there 

 were not too many known already, for nightmare. All 



given in Ms volume ' De Pisoibus ;' and a singular circumstance 

 connected with its capture, wHcli occurred off Gibraltar in 1565, 

 was the appearance (reproduced in the plate) of a whole fleet of 

 ships painted along its sides from tail to gill-flaps, in anticipa- 

 tion, no doubt, of the Spanish Armada then preparing to invade 

 England. 



* This is called 'sorra' in Sardinia, where it is held to this 

 day as a delicacy, selling at double the price of either the back or 

 flanks. 



