SOOMBEEID^. 217 



they have strayed cannot be very far distant, but is pro- 

 bably lying perdu in deep water, within telescopic range, 

 though beyond the reach of nets. 



We proceed now to offer a few remarks on mackerel 

 as an article of diet. Those of the Mediterranean are 

 poor, dry, and indigestible, and if the meat be not ' gra- 

 vissimum alimentum,' as Celsus, however, expressly af- 

 firms, it is quite heavy enough to irritate and derange 

 a weak and susceptible stomach. Once or twice in the 

 season, we, who have a choice of many excellent fish at 

 home, may choose to sit down to a full-grown, plump, 

 soft-roed, northern mackerel, well cooked, ' k la maitre 

 d^hotel,' fried ' aux fines herbes en papillotes,' or plain 

 boiled with green gooseberry sauce, or with one of oil and 

 vinegar thickened with chopped parsley, and even find 

 the dish no bad change in our bill of fare ; but to dine 

 once only on a colias or pneumatophorus mackerel in 

 the south, with any sauce, or under any cooking, is an 

 experiment no Englishman at least would care to repeat ; 

 and this seems to have been very much the opinion 

 formed of these cohas by the ancients : for though Api- 

 cius wrote many recipes for sauces to dress them in, 

 and to pour over them at table, the mere complexity of 

 the ingredients, and the abundance of the stronger con- 

 diments with which they are for the most part charged, 

 shows what pains were taken to disguise a fish which 

 nobody cared to eat 'au naturel:' indeed, we learn ex- 

 pressly from various ancient sources that these were not 

 considered fish to eat fresh, but to salt, iinTrjhei.oi ek 

 Tapo'xelav, as Mnesimachus declares in Athenseus. The 

 modems have not followed the ancients in this practice 

 of curing inackerel : if we except Spain, where salt co- 

 lias have stiU a good market, there is no other country 

 in Europe where they have any considerable sale. The 

 dried salted roes, unknown to the ancients, are at pre- 

 sent in high request, and form a good substitute for bo- 



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