Chap. 30.] 
FISHES. 
401 
districts of Campania. During five years, the greatest care 
was taken that those which were caught should be returned to 
the sea ; but since then they have been always found in great 
abundance off the shores of Italy, where formerly there were 
none to be taken. Thus has gluttony introduced these fish, to 
be a dainty within its reach, and added a new inhabitant to 
the seas ; so that we ought to feel no surprise that foreign 
birds breed at Eome. 
The fish that is next in estimation for the table is the mus- 
tela,^^ but that is valued only for its liver. A singular thing 
to tell of — the lake of Erigantia,'^ in EhsBtia, lying in the 
midst of the Alps, produces them to rival even those of the 
sea.^^ 
CHAP. 30. — THE VAEIOFS KINDS OF MULLETS, AlfD THE SAEGIJS 
THAT ATTEIfDS THEM. 
Of the remaining fish that are held in any degree of esteem, 
the mullet is the most highly valued, as well as the most 
abundant of all ; it is of only a moderate size, rarely exceeds 
two pounds in weight, and will never grow beyond that weight 
in preserves or fish-ponds. These fish are only to be found in 
the I^orthern Ocean, exceeding two pounds in weight, and 
even there in none but the more westerly parts. As for the 
other kinds, the various species are numerous ; some^^ live 
upon sea-weed, while others feed on the oyster, slime, and the 
flesh of other fish. The more distinctive mark is a forked 
^2 Or weasel-fish. Cuvier is of opinion that Hardouin is right in his 
conjecture, that this is the Lote, or Gadus lota of Linnaeus, which is still 
called motelle in some of the provinces of France. Its liver, he says, is one 
of the greatest delicacies that can be eaten. 
^3 The present Boden See, or Lake of Constance. 
1* Instead of " marinis," Sillig adopts the reading muraenis,'^ making 
them to rival the muraena even. The other, however, seems to be the pre- 
ferable reading. 
Cuvier says that this is the rpiyXa of the Greeks, the triglia of mo- 
dern Italy, the rouget of Provence, and the Mullus barbatus of Linnaeus. 
1^ The coasts of La Manche, Cuvier says, and the Gulf of Gascony pro- 
duce a kind of mullet of larger size than usual, varied with stripes of a 
yellow colour. This, the Mullus surmuletus of Linnaeus^ is also to be found 
in the Mediterranean, but much more rarely than the smaller kind, which 
is red all over. 
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5; ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 41 ; 
and Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. L 435. 
VOL. II. D D 
