246 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



But should Ms first attempt his hopes deceive, 

 And fatal space th' imprison'd fall receive, 

 Exhausted strength no second leap supphes ; 

 Self-doom'd to death the prostrate victim lies, 

 Eesign'd with paiufal expectation, waits, 

 Tin thinner element completes his fates.* 



Thus brute instinctj like tlie legal code of the Medes 

 and Persians^ changes not ; human reason, like that of 

 Great Britain^ changes to improve. Modern mugils 

 continue to leap for life as their predecessors did from the 

 earliest times ; but they might now as well let it alone, 

 aU their caudoeuvres ending only in catching themselves, 

 in place of waiting patiently to be caught. The Neapo- 

 litan lazzaroni have hit upon two devices which inevitably 

 secure all those that once come within sweep of the net : 

 first, they either make a great disturbance on the surface 

 of the water, the effect of which is to terriiy the im- 

 prisoned cephali so that they do not attempt to escape ; 

 or, secondly (and this is the more common and favourite 

 procedure), they place a floating raft of reeds round the 

 nets, upon which the mugils, eager to escape, and attempt- 

 ing to leap over the enciente, fall, and are instantly taken 

 prisoners by a patroUing crew going the round and on the 

 look out for runaways. The fishermen of the Tiber catch 

 them in nets moved by the stream, which may be seen 

 revolving from below Ponte Sesto and the Ripetta, to 

 several mUes up beyond the Ponte Molle. This fish, 

 though an alumnus of the Mediterranean, is by no means 

 confined to the south ; it abounds in several of the rivers 

 of France ; and such numbers in particular are said to 

 flock into the Loire and the Garonne in spring as to cause 

 their currents to run quite blue over the dense phalanx 

 as it comes up from the sea to fatten in fresh water. 



The quality of the mugU is very variable : in the open 



* John Jones, and not in his best vein. 



