Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

38oFISH- VIVARIA—FIRST POACHINGThis letter confirms what had previously been only surmised,viz. that the inhabitants of certain districts had enjoyedthe exclusive right of fishing in their home waters. " It hasalready been inferred," King continues, " that the duty ofrepairing the banks of rivers and canals, and of clearing thewaterways, fell upon the owners of property along the banks,and it was no doubt as a compensation for this enforcedservice (or corvee) that the fishing in these waters was preserved."Mesopotamia and Armenia did not lack in fish of unusual,even fatal, properties. Thus of certain fishes near Babylon/Elian tells us ^ on the authority of Theophrastus, when theirrigation streams were without water, they remained in anysmall hole which was moist or held a little water, and were able tofind a hving in the herbage which grew in the dry channels, etc.Pliny (IX. 83) gives a somewhat similar story but a more detaileddescription of these fish,which " have heads like sea-frogs, theremaining parts like gudgeons, but the gills Hke other fish."Emerging from their water holes, they travel on land for food,moving along with their fins, aided by a rapid movement oftheir tail.If pursued, they retreat to their holes and make astand.He notices too the stay-at-homeness of the fish in theTigris and of those in the lake Arethusa. Though the riverflows in and out of the lake,the denizens of the one are neverto be found in the other. We discern the reason for suchestranged relations in his previous sentence, " the waters ofthe lake support all weighty substances and exhale nitrousvapours." 2Ktesias mentions a spring in Armenia, the fishesof which are quite black and, if eaten, prove instantly fatal. ^The only spring of sweet-smelling water " in toto orbe,"Chabura, hes in Mesopotamia. The reason (according tolegend) for its possessing this unique property was becausein it the Queen of Heaven, Juno, or presumably her Babyloniancounterpart, was wont to bathe.* But Pliny fails to indicatewhether the unique scent was an effort of Nature to supplya bath meet for the Queen of Heaven, or was merely a1 N. H., V. 27. « N. H., VI. 31.* Ibxd., XXXI. 19. « N. H., XXXI. 22.