202 
FOREST AND STREAM 
THE GAME 
FISHES OF 
CURES. 
ANCIENT EPI- 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
ESjF" SB 
PUBLISHED BY 
forest and gtreatq publishing ^ontpaijn, 
1? CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORE. 
[Robt Omoi Box 2832 .] 
Term*, Fl*e Dollar* a Year, Strictly Id Adraoce. 
A discount of twenty percent, allowed for Are copies and upwards. 
Adrerllatng Rate*. 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the inch 21 
cents per lino. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cent* per line. Reading 
notices, 6 0 ce nts per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent 
extra. Where advertisements ore inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent ; over six 
months, 30 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY C, 1875. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
Correspondence, must be addressed to This Forest and Stream Pus- 
lisbino Co Mr ant. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communications Intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 
objection bo made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper arc solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor ns with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as It is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
And our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
Is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
lend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 
ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms ; and nothing will bo admitted to any department of the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in tho homo circle. 
Wo cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 
money remitted to us is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by 8atnrday of each wook, if possible. 
CHARLES II VLLOCK. Editor. 
WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE COM- 
ING WEEK, 
Thdrsdat. May 5th — Racing, Spring meeting Nashville Blood Horse 
Association— Base ball. Chicago vs. St. Louis at SI. Louis; Red Stock- 
ings vs. Kookuk at Keokuk; Centennial vs. Hartford at Hartford. 
Saturday, May 8th.— Yachting, Opening cruise Royal Alfred Yacht 
Club-Base ball, Chicago vs. St. Louis at St. Louis; Red Stockings vs 
Keokuk st Keokuk; Boston vs. Mutual at Boston-Rifle, Shooting off 
challenges (If any) International Team; Irish American Club contest for 
badge, Creedmoor-Boating, Eight-oared race. Undine and Crescent. 
Schuylkill— Columbia College athletic gomes, Moll Haven— Cricket, 
Graduates ve. Undergraduates, Toronto. 
Monday, May 10th.— Racing, Spring meeting Kentucky Association, 
Lexington, Ky —Base ball, Boston vs. Mutual at Boston— Rlile, Shoot- 
ing off challenges (if any) International Team. 
Tuesdat, May llth.-Racing, Lexington, Ky.-Base ball, St. Louis vs 
Keokuk at Keokuk; Chicago ve. Red Stockings at St. Louis; Athletic 
vs. Atlantic at Brooklyn. 
Wednesday, May 12th.— Racing, Lexington, Ky.— Base ball, Athletic 
ve Mutnal at Brooklyn; Borion vs, Washing ton «t Boston. 
BENCH SHOWS. 
TN another column will be found a report of the Bench 
-L Show of dogs recently held by the Rod and Gun Club 
of Springfield, Mass. It will be seen that no less than one 
hundred and sixty-seven dogs were presented to the judges 
for examination and approval, and out of this number two 
thirds or more were dogs used for sporting purposes. In 
England this would probably be called a very small show, 
Out in this country it indicates a growth of the sporting in- 
stinct which is at once healthy and extremely promising 
for the future. When that class of our people who are as 
yet ignorant of the sports of the field shall have come to 
know the difference between the sportsman and the sport- 
ing man, we may look for Bench Shows and Field Trials 
of the magnitude to which they attain on the “other side." 
This is but the sixth exhibition of the description which 
has been held in this country. The first was at Chicago, 
followed by another at Oswego last year and then by the 
shows at Mineola, Memphis, and Detroit. Those yet to 
come are the Kentucky State Tournament at Paris, May 
18th, the Watertown Show, which will beheld at the meet- 
ing of the State Sportsmen’s Association during the latter 
part of May or first of June, to be followed by another at 
Mineola on June 16th and 17th. In October or November 
will be held the annual Bench Show and Field Trial at 
Memphis. 
I N referring to game fish we generally include those 
loved by epicures, and, in fact, any fair fish that will 
make a brave resistance to the wary sportsman, and under 
this heading we find the creme of the finny population. 
In olden times, in the flush of Roman prosperity, immcusc 
sums were given by the wealthy gourmands to satisfy their 
epicurean tastes, and the game fishes of that dale were 
cultivated and educated for the feast with all the care and 
disinterested affection of the rival owners of modern Spring 
chickens. 
Standing at the head of the list was the red mullet (mul- 
lut barbatiu), and its appcaiancc is made additionally at- 
tractive by a most superb vesture of colors that change 
and flash in the varying sunlight like a nebulosity of ma- 
rine rainbows. The Roman gourmands gave fortunes for 
this splendid creature, and Piiny tells us that Hortensus, 
the advocate aud greatest rival of Cicero, was so fond of 
it that it became a passion, and the poor creatures were in- 
troduced to the diniug board alive by means of a small 
canal under the table, and allowed to die so that the noble 
Roman could enjoy the change of colors produced by its 
agony and be diverted while at his wine. Such excessive 
epicureanism caused the market value of the fish to rise, 
aud the poor fisherman reaped a rich harvest. Martini 
says: “A fish of three pounds produced a considerable 
sum to the poor men, while a mullet of four and a half 
pounds was simply ruinous.” Asinius Gelius purchased 
one for his friends at a price of eight thousand sesterces, 
or about $300, and, according to Suetonius, Caligula paid 
$o00 a pound, making nearly $15,000 for four of them, 
and at another feast three were purchased at the neat sum 
of thirty thousand sesterces. Its flesh, like that of our 
mullet in the Gulf of Mexico, is when first caught hard, 
firm, and white as crystal, and well worthy the attention 
of sportsmen. It is found now in the Mediterranean, and 
is still eagerly sought after by the descendants of the old 
epicures. 
The murry, or more properly the pipiro, that is now 
looked upon with loathing, was at the time of Augustus 
Ctesar prized very highly, and one species, the miirana 
Mena, was kept in “stews” on account of its ability to live- 
in fresh water, and Pliny in mentioning them, says that 
“ Vcdius Pollio, a Roman knight and intimate friend of 
Cft-sar’e, proved the fierceness of these fishes by throwing 
condemned slaves into his ponds to be devoured by them. 
This tender feeding so iucrensed the flavor of the fish in 
the Roman mind that slave fed murries were in great de- 
mand, and it must have been a huge satisfaction to the 
fierce master to feel that lie was grinding and masticating 
the victim of bis condemnation without fear of the charge 
of cannibalism. To show the singular attachment felt for 
these fishes by their owners, it is said that Hortensius 
Orator wept when they died, and that Antonius Drusus so 
loved one that he dressed it with earrings— truly a rare 
mistress. Licinius Crassus trained his murries to obey his 
slightest word, and at his approach they darted from the 
recesses of the pond Iq be fed from his hand. Tartessus 
afforded the best murries, and also a smaller species than 
the one above mentioned, and now found near Cadiz aud 
in the Straits of Gibraltar. The flesh is firm and sweet 
and Brydone says that the murries of the Faro di Messina 
are the finest game fish (in a gastronomic view) in the 
world. This, however, was of course merely a matter of 
fashion, as the fish is hardly superior to the eel, and de- 
cidedly more snake-like. We have frequently caught them 
in the Gulf of Mexico, where they are known as murrays 
and with their long, sharp fangs and snake-like appearance,’ 
they do little credit to Roman taste. In the family (Par- 
cada) we find the Labrax Input the delight of the ancient 
Grecians, and so fond of them was Archistralus that when 
a bass was presented to him from Mile*, he pronounced it 
an “offspring of the gods.” It took the place of the 
sturgeon in the feasts of Augustus, aud bade fair to out-do 
the fair sea snipe, as the surmullet was called, in the race 
of fashiou. At certain seasons the bass of rivers was 
most prized, particularly those taken between the bridges 
over the Tiber. These were the younger fish, and were 
spotted. The finest were named Lunate (woolly), because 
their flesh rivaled wool in softness and whiteness. Accord- 
ing to Columalla, the cultivated taste of Marcius Philippus 
first taught the Romans to prize the bass that were taken 
while exhausting their strength in stemming the current of 
the Tiber, and Horace satirically asks, “ Whence is it that 
your palates can distinguish between the Tiberine basse 
and those taken at sea » And why do you dislike the older 
fish of that kind when you praise insanely an overgrown 
surmullet ?" To this he replies himself that it is solely 
because the bass is naturally of larger growth and the sur- 
mullet of less, and rarity adds to the value. From the roe 
of the cannori, a member of this family, a cake is made 
of rare good taste, and similar to the caviare, known in 
Italy as botargo, only that it is made of the eggs of mul- 
lets and tunnies. 
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the head of the 
maigre was considered the most delicate dish to set before 
a guest. The fish was large, weighing over fifty pounds, 
and the meat in the cheek and under the lips was always 
in demand, so much so that it was the custom to offer it as 
a valuable perquisite to the three conservators of the city 
of Rome. Bishop Paul Jovius, who published a work on 
fishes in the year 1531, relates the story of a noted parasite 
named Tamisio, who flourished in the year 1480. This 
gourmand being wont to station bis servant in the fish 
markot to bring him intelligence of the destination of the 
finest fish, learned from him that a maigre of unusual size 
had been brought in. Tamisio immediately hurried to wait 
on the conservators in expectation of an invitation to din- 
ner, but as he ascended the steps of the capitol he met the 
head, adorned with flowers, aud borne, by order of the 
conservators, to Cardinal Riario, nephew of Sextus IV. 
Tamisio being acquainted with this prelate gladly joined 
in the procession. But Riario, delighting in a play of 
words, said that the greatest of fishes should go by right 
to the greatest of Cardinals, and sent it accordingly to 
Cardinal St. Severin, who was of extraordinary bulk. He 
iu his turn dispatched it in a golden dish to the wealthy 
banker Chigi, to whom he owed money. This time Tamisio 
in his eager pursuit, had to traverse the whole city, and to 
cross the Tiber in his way to the Farnesiau palace which 
Chigi had built. Chigi, however, did not retain thu- much 
prized head, but replaced the faded garlands with newly 
gathered flowers and sent it to his mistress, whose abode 
lay a great way off. There at length Tamisio, who, though 
fat and unwieldy, had tracked the object of his desires 
under a hot sun over a whole city, was at length permitted 
to partake of the luxury he had endured so much toil to 
obtain. History will never deprive him of his well de- 
served title of Prince of Gourmands. 
The noted scarus, for a long time was endeared to the 
inner man of the ancients, and perhaps no fish wus so thor- 
oughly respected for its supposed arts as this same crea- 
ture. Aristotle slated that it was a ruminant, and the only 
one among fishes. Pliny repeated this, and states with all 
gravity (probably thinking of his stomach) that it was tho 
chief of fishes. Ovid and Oppean sang its praises, and the 
grave Selencus states that it is the only fish that ever sleeps. 
-Elian swears it is the only fish that ever loves, and, after 
all this, the outbursts of poets and lettori, they eat the ob- 
ject of their rhapsodies. All poetry is but the insanity of 
a moment., that, especially if we eat the object of our ado- 
ration, fades away and proves our madness. In the days 
of the Emperor Claudius, however, Optatus Elipertius 
brought some of these fish from the Troad aud turned 
them loose near the mouth of the Tiber. During five 
years all that were taken iu nets were returned to the sea, 
after which they became abundant on the Italian shores! 
The pains that Elipertius took to bring a supply of this 
fish within reach of the Roman epicures was justified by 
the great value set upon it. Martial speaks of the intesti- 
nal fat of a sea fed scarus as most excellent, and Xexo- 
crates tells us that the viscera of a scarus newly brought 
from the sea are most agreeable. The liver was in high 
estimation, and formed, along with the milts of murries 
the brains of peacocks and pheasants, aod the tongues of 
flamingoes the dish named by Vitellius “The Shield of 
Minerva.” So careful were Roman dinner givers to have 
this fish perfectly fresh that, according to Patronn^3> 
was the custom to present it alive to the guests before it 
was consigned to the cook. The Scania Oretensis is even 
at the present day esteemed a most delicate dish by the in- 
habitants of Asia Minor, but it is said to be taken with 
difficulty, and only by highly skilled fishermen. 
In later times and during the reign of Henry I. the 
lamprey was esteemed a delicacy, and this sovereign is said 
to have died in 1135 at St. Denis le Forment from eating 
them, as did the poet Pope in later years, both victims to 
this inoffensive animal. Pennant tells us that Henry IV. 
so loved them, quoting from Rymee’s “ Foedera," that he 
granted protection to such ships as brought over lampreys 
for the tables of himself and royal consort. Henry VI. 
contracted with William of Nantes for a supply to his 
army, withersoever it might march, of lampreys, to be 
taken from the mouth of the Seine and Harfleur. It was 
anciently a custom of the city of Gloucester to present the 
British sovereign with a lamprey pie, and, fortunately for 
the Queen, the custom has died out. Camden, as an epi- 
cure, says; “The lampreys of the Severn arc tho finest in 
the Spring, being then more tender, and that in his lime 
the Italians prepared them for the table by drowning them 
in Cretan wine, placing a nutmeg in the mouth and a clove 
in each gill opening, rolling them up spirally in the flour of 
filbert nuts and crumbs of bread mixed with oil, spices, 
and Cretan wine, and then boiling them for some time in a 
cloth. That surely should have been a right royal dish, 
and well worthy the royal board. C. F. Holder. 
AN UPRIGHT MEMBER. 
T HE Hon. A. M. Sullivan, M. P. for Louth, Ireland, is 
covering himself with glory, not gained on the gory 
field of battle, but in the more peaceful chambers of the 
House of Commons. The patriotism of Mr. Sullivan and 
his intense interest in the proper administration of his 
country’s laws, has displayed itself in a question put to the 
Secretary for Ireland, as to whether the law regarding the 
carrying of arms on Irish soil would be modified in favor 
of the American riflemen so soon to visit Erin’s shores. 
Notwithstanding the assurances given him on that occasion, 
Mr. Sullivan has repeated the question, and his uneasy 
mind is tortured either with fears of a Fenian landing, or 
that the Americans may be arrested for high treason; it is 
difficult, to tell which. Sir H. M. Beach has assured him 
that the visitors are good citizens, not likely to break the 
laws of the country, aud moreover that all classes of the 
Irish people, including the Government, will give them a 
cordial and hearty welcome. Still the Member from Louth 
is not happy, and demands to know whether “in accord- 
ance with the law they are not liable to arrest, having rifles 
i Q their trunks." We should be glad to know who Inform- 
