582 TUNNY. 



times, on many parts of the Mediterranean coasts, 

 where this fish still continues to be taken in great 

 plenty, more especially round the island of Sicily. 

 In the British seas it is rarely observed in shoals ; 

 the individuals which occur being rather considered 

 as accidental stragglers. Mr. Pennant records an 

 instance of one which he saw on the northern coasts 

 of Scotland, weighing 460 pounds, and measuring 

 seven feet ten inches in length. Much larger 

 specimens however are occasionally taken in the 

 Sicilian sea. In tl)e Indian ocean this species is 

 said to be seen of an enormous size, and to assemble 

 in vast shoals. Pliny pretends that the fleet of 

 Alexander the Great was impeded in its progress 

 b}^ a shoal of Tunnies, so strongly wedged together 

 that he found it necessary to dispose his ships into 

 battle array, in order to force through the opposing 

 phalanx of fishes *. 



The Tunny-Fishery is of equal importance to 

 the inhabitants of the Mediterranean coasts as the 

 Herring-Fishery to those of the more northern parts 

 of Europe. The smaller fishes are chiefly sold 

 fresh, while the larger are cut in pieces and salted, 

 and barrelled up for sale. 



The general colour of the Tunny is a dark or 

 dull blue on the upper parts, and silvery with a 

 cast of flesh-colour on the sides and abdomen : the 

 first dorsal fin and the tail deep grey, the second, 

 together with the pectoral, ventral, anal, and spuri- 

 pus fins yellow : the pectoral fins are of a lanceolate 



f Plin. lib. 9. cap* 3. 



