5S6 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
When the park, in place of being established for a single fishery, 
is a permanent construction in the sea, it is called, in Provence, a 
madrague. The madrague is a vast enclosure. The netting which 
forms the partitions of its chambers are sustained by buoys of cork on 
the surface, and kept down by heavy stones and other weights on the 
lower edge, and maintained in this position by cords, one extremity 
ol which is attached to the net, and the other is moored to an anchor. 
The madrague is intended to arrest the shoals of tunnies at the 
moment when they abandon the shore in order to return to the open 
sea. For this purpose a long alley or run is established between the 
sea-shore and the park or madrague. The tunnies follow this alley, 
and, after passing from chamber to chamber, betake themselves at last 
to the body of the park. 
In order to force them into the madrague they are pressed towards 
the shore by means of a long net, which is extended in their rear 
attached to two boats, each of which sustain one of the upper angles 
ol the net. When the fishes come to the last compartment, the 
fishermen raise a horizontal net, which makes a sort of plate of this 
compartment, in which the fishes are gradually raised to the surface 
of the water. This operation occupies the whole night. 
In the morning the tunnies are collected in a very narrow space, 
and at varying distances from the shore ; and now r the carnage com- 
mences. The unhappy creatures are struck with long poles, boat- 
hooks, and other weapons. The tunny-fishing presents a very sad 
spectacle at this its last stage ; fine, large fish perish under the blows 
of a multitude of fishermen, who pursue their bloody task with most 
dramatic effect. The sight of the poor creatures, some of them wounded 
and half dead, trying in vain to struggle with their ferocious assailants, 
is very painful to endure. The sea, red with blood, long preserves 
traces of this frightful carnage, of which an illustration is attempted 
in Pl. XXXI. 
The flesh of the tunny is much esteemed, being firm and wholesome. 
It is called the salmon of Provence. “ For our part,” says M. Figuier, 
“ we put it far above the salmon. Nothing is comparable to the fresh 
tunny thrown into a hot frying-pan, and sprinkled with vinegar and 
salt. When properly cooked, nothing can be more firm or savoury. In 
short, nothing of the kind can rival, or even be compared, with the 
tunny, as we find it at Marseilles and Cette.” 
