212 
SURMULLET. 
are caught in a trawl, from the loss of their scales and 
bruised condition, are still more prone to decay than such as 
are taken in the trammel; and care in this respect is the more 
necessary, as a large portion of their rich flavoiu’ depends on 
the particular manner in which they are cooked. It is 
necessary that the enti'ails (and especially the liver) should 
remain within the fish when they are roasted or baked, and 
they are rolled in paper to protect the skin from being undidy 
scorched with the heat, — a mode of preparation, which, it is 
not a little remarkable, has been practised for at least two 
tliousand years; as we learn from JElian, who says that it was 
the custom to roast them, and that skilful cooks professed to 
hinder the belly from bursting by kissing the mouth of the 
fish.— B. X, C. 7. 
In no article of luxury does it appear that the Romans of 
the empii-e went to such extravagant, and even ridiculous ex- 
tent as in regard to this fish; but that there is no exaggeration 
in the statements of the poets, appears from the corroboration 
afforded by the sober relations of the moralists and historians. 
The utmost pains and cost were bestowed on the formation 
of ponds for preserving these fish, and thereby having them 
always at hand; but unhappily success did not always attend the 
effort, and Columella (De re Rustica, B. 8, C. 17,) informs us 
that when caught, — it must be supj)osed in what we now term 
a ground-scan — and turned into the pond, scai’cely one in 
several thousands survived to reward the care bestowed upon 
them. This loss he ascribes to the nobility of the fish, which 
spurned confinement; but we can more readily impute it to 
the stagnant nature of the water, which admitted of little 
change in a place where there existed only a very small 
influence of the tide, and which therefore experienced renewal 
only from the uncertain influx of waves when the wind might 
chance to blow high and in a favourable direction. We speak of 
the Surmullet as having been the subject of so much extrav- 
agant attention, but there is reason to believe that what we 
shall presently find occasion to mention, ajjplies more directly 
to the plain Red Mullet; — the next in order in our arrange- 
ment, and much the most abundant along the coasts of the 
hlediterranean, rather than to the larger and more ornamented 
fish which chiefly abounds in Britain. But there was little 
