Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

CHAPTER XTHE SCARUS—THE EARLIEST ACCLIMATISATION OF FISH—THE FIRST NOTICE "FISHING PROHIBITED"From the wealth of copious yet conflicting accounts of thisfamous fish in Greek and Roman writers, a large monographmight be produced. ^ I restrict myself to a short notice of theacclimatisation of the fish, and of the controversies on itsvalue, as (A) a Dainty, and (B) a Diet.The original habitat of the Scarus was in the seas off AsiaMinor, especially in the Carpathian Sea. During the Augustanage it was rarely taken in Italian waters, and then only whendriven thither by storms. Thus Horace complains that neitherLucrine oysters nor Rhomhi come his way," aut scari,Si quos Eois intonata fluctibusHiems ad hoc vertat mare."[Ep., II. 50 ff.)Pliny (IX. 29), after attributing to the Scarus the uniquecharacteristic of being herbivorous and never feeding on otherfish and asserting that of its own accord it never passes fromthe Carpathian Sea beyond Cape Troas, goes on to tell us that^ " II est peu de poissons et meme d'animaux qui aient ete, pour les premierspeuples civilises de I'Europe, I'objet de plus de recherches, d'attention, etcl'eloges que le Scare " (Lacepede). On the family of the Labridcs (of which theScarus forms a genus) the same author asserts that Nature has not conferredeither strength or power, but they have received as their share of her favours,agreeable proportions, great activity of fin, and adornment with all the coloursof the rainbow. Of the two cousins of the Scarus, the Tardus and the Julis,his eulogy can not be omitted: " Le feu du diamant, du rubis, de la topaz,de I'emeraude, du saphir, de I'amethyste, du grenat scintille sur leures ecaillespolies : et brille sur leure surface en gouttes, en croissants, en raies, en bandes,en anneaux, en ceintures, en zones, en ondes ; il se mele c\ I'eclat de Tor etd'argent qui y resplendit sur de grandes places, les teintes obscures, les airespales, et pour ainsi dire decolorees." Nicander of Thyatira [cp. Athen. 7,113) states that there were two kinds of Scarus, one aUko^ of many diversecolours, the other hvias of a dull grey tint.159