100 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
through the Straits of Gibraltar cannot be denied. 
Even in winter they are caught in the Mediterranean, 
though at this season they withdraw to the deepest 
waters. Not before spring do they again approach the 
shore; and they are then caught in large quantities in 
seines, chiefly in France and Spain — and also in the 
Atlantic, where this fishery is more desultory — in 
madragues off the coast of Italy, chiefly in Sardinia 
and Sicily, and in matanzas in Tunis. The last two 
engines, which closely resemble each other, consist of 
a series of nets fixed at a depth of at least 18 fathoms, 
on the same principle as the Swedish traps for Perch 
( ryssjor , fig. 4, p. 33) or netted pens ( pator ) for Sal- 
mon, oi' the ground-nets ( bottengarn ) used in the Sound. 
This principle, which is employed, though with several 
modifications, by all fishing nations, is founded on the 
observation that fish, at least when collected in shoals, 
keep the same course and coast any obstacles that may 
meet them in the same direction, provided they are 
not suddenly frightened. One arm of the net is drawn 
towards the shore and another out to sea in order to 
guide the fish into the chambers, which correspond to 
the netted pen or the divisions of the Perch-traps. 
The last chamber, called the chamber of death, has a 
net at the bottom, which is raised, like the chamber 
of the ground-net, when the catch is to be taken. 
The murderous slaughter which now ensues is in some 
places a public amusement 0 *, and several hundred fish 
are often taken at a haul. In the island of St. Pierre 
off the south coast of Sardinia, 15,850 Tunnies were 
taken by this method in 1866: their total weight was 
about 1,255 tons and they were valued on the spot at 
about <£51,000. The fishing goes on even in autumn 
up to the end of October, when the Tunnies wander 
in the opposite direction and are therefore supposed to 
be endeavouring to make their way out into the At- 
lantic. The flesh is highly valued in the countries 
bordering on the Mediterranean. The different parts 
of the fish are of different appearance and flavour. The 
slices from the belly (sorra) are considered most deli- 
cate. One part of the flesh is preserved in oil ( sea - 
beccio), another salted, and the head, bones and offal 
are boiled down into train-oil. The roe, too, is highly 
esteemed. It is sometimes made into bottarga, a kind 
of salted and pressed caviare. The best bottarga , how- 
ever, is obtained from the Grey Mullet. Good and 
wholesome as the flesh of the Tunny is when fresh or 
well preserved, it is no less harmful when this is not 
the case, as it decomposes rapidly. 
In the Scandinavian fauna the Tunny can only be 
regarded as an occasional visitor, though it often crowds 
“in large shoals” (Coll.) into the Norwegian fjords as 
far north as the Lofoden Islands. Strom (1. c.) informs 
us that in the last century it was often taken partly 
in the herring-nets among the summer Herrings, and 
partly with the harpoon, the latter instrument being 
used chiefly in Jorgen Fjord (a branch of Stor Fjord 
in Sondmor), and that its flesh, which Avas fat as 
bacon, Avas regarded as a delicacy by the peasants. 
No fry, hoAvever, to prove that it propagates its species 
in Nonvay, have ever been found, so far as Ave kriOAV*. 
Off the coast of Bohuslan the Tunny is seldom caught, 
though, according to Cederstrom, it is not rare on the 
north coast during summer. Hollberg described in 
1822 (1. c.) a specimen 172 cm. in length, Avhich had 
been caught eight years before in the River Gotha just 
Avliere it passes the Old Toavii (a part of Gothenburg). 
Ekstrom presented to the Royal Museum a specimen 
236 cm. in length, Avhich Avas found dead on the 
23rd of August, 1844, in the island-belt of Tjorn (Bo- 
huslan). Malm mentions a specimen taken off the rock 
of Gaso, outside Gullrnaren, in the autumn of 1851, 
which Avas only a little smaller than another 248V 2 
cm. long, Avhich Avas found by some fishermen “en- 
tangled in seaAveed” in the Skager Rack on the 15th 
of October, 1867. In September, 1887, on an islet at 
the mouth of the Dynekil not far from Stromstad, “a 
specimen of the Tunny Avas cast ashore which Avas 
nearly 27 dm. in length; the length of the head from 
the gills to the point of the loAver jaAv was 700 mm.” 
(C. A. Hansson). The Tunny has been met Avith on 
numerous other occasions in the Cattegat, the Sound, 
the Great Belt and even in the Baltic 0 . It has tAvice 
been taken off Ystad, in 1709 and in October, 1878, 
and once off Ostra Torp at the most southern point 
of SAveden. In 1869 a Tunny Avas caught off Stral- 
sund, and the species has been met Avith several times 
in the south-Avest corner of the Baltic and in the Sound. 
° Cf. Bkehm, T/nerleben, 2nd. ed., Abtb. Ill, Bd. 3, p. 97. 
6 Though Hofmann relates in Tidskr. f. Naturv. Kbhvn., II, p. 365, that a Tunny as large as a Mackerel, i. e. 3 or 4 months old, 
has been caught off the north coast of Fiinen, Kroyer, who quotes this find (1. c., p. 250), seems to doubt its accuracy. 
c See Kroyer, Nilsson, Winther and M5dius and Heincke. 
