90 
TUNNY. 
well-known practice as early as the days of Pisistratus, about 
five hundred and fifty years before Christ, — 
“The net is set, and dexterously thrown; 
By the clear moonlight shall the Tunnies come;” 
we will content ourselves with quoting the accounts left us 
by the ancient writers — ^Pllian and Oppian, the narrative by 
the former author being of greater interest to us from the 
fact, that there is reason for supposing that what he describes 
is the origin of a practice now used on a part of the coast 
of Cornwall for taking Pilchards. The antiquity and origin 
of the thing will further appear from some remarks which we 
owe to the kindness of an eminent scholar, who does not 
survive to accept the thanks we would have offered him for 
the information thus afforded. jElian says (B. 15, C. 5.) that 
the people who lived in the cities of Portus were well aware 
of the times when these fishes came to their coasts; and they 
prepared for them with boats, nets, and the other materials 
that were necessary; and especially they reared up in some 
commanding situation a watch-tower for the use of a man 
whom we may well designate the huer, and who answers to 
him who for the same purpose is employed also on the coasts 
of Italy; but the towers spoken of by Strabo were built of 
stone, whereas the one described by jElian was formed of 
stout beams of wood. Each boat had a crew of six young 
men, and carried a long net, which was floated by means of 
corks along the head line, and the bottom weighed down with 
leads. When the weather was favourable the huer descried 
the approaching school, and gave the alarm. The movements 
of the rowers were guided by the sounds he uttered, and so 
skilfully was- the proceeding conducted, that it often happened 
that the whole of the school became their prize. It will 
sometimes happen, however, that this assembled army of fish 
will change their course, and pass off towards the deeper 
water; but this was soon detected by the ready observation 
of the huer, who directed his orders accordingly. A long 
hawser was fastened to one of the posts of the huer’s watch- 
tower for the purpose of sustaining the shore end of the net, 
and several boats proceeded in chase, each one with a section 
of the net that was intended to enclose the school. The first 
