Sometimes The Fishermen Find
Under Water, Pieces Of A Very Hard Cement, Like Plaister Of
Paris, Which Contain A Kind Of Muscle, Called La Datte, From Its
Resemblance To A Date.
These petrifactions are commonly of a
triangular form and may weigh about twelve or fifteen pounds each
and one
Of them may contain a dozen of these muscles which have
nothing extraordinary in the taste or flavour, though extremely
curious, as found alive and juicy, in the heart of a rock, almost
as hard as marble, without any visible communication with the air
or water. I take it for granted, however, that the inclosing
cement is porous, and admits the finer parts of the surrounding
fluid. In order to reach the muscles, this cement must be broke
with large hammers; and it may be truly said, the kernal is not
worth the trouble of cracking the shell. [These are found
in great plenty at Ancona and other parts of the Adriatic, where
they go by the name of Bollani, as we are informed by Keysler.]
Among the fish of this country, there is a very ugly animal of
the eel species, which might pass for a serpent: it is of a
dusky, black colour, marked with spots of yellow, about eighteen
inches, or two feet long. The Italians call it murena; but
whether it is the fish which had the same name among the antient
Romans, I cannot pretend to determine. The antient murena was
counted a great delicacy, and was kept in ponds for extraordinary
occasions. Julius Caesar borrowed six thousand for one
entertainment: but I imagined this was the river lamprey. The
murena of this country is in no esteem, and only eaten by the
poor people.
Craw-fish and trout are rarely found in the rivers among the
mountains. The sword-fish is much esteemed in Nice, and called
l'empereur, about six or seven feet long: but I have never seen
it. [Since I wrote the above letter, I have eaten several times
of this fish, which is as white as the finest veal, and extremely
delicate. The emperor associates with the tunny fish, and is
always taken in their company.] They are very scarce; and when
taken, are generally concealed, because the head belongs to the
commandant, who has likewise the privilege of buying the best
fish at a very low price. For which reason, the choice pieces are
concealed by the fishermen, and sent privately to Piedmont or
Genoa. But, the chief fisheries on this coast are of the
sardines, anchovies, and tunny. These are taken in small
quantities all the year; but spring and summer is the season when
they mostly abound. In June and July, a fleet of about fifty
fishing-boats puts to sea every evening about eight o'clock, and
catches anchovies in immense quantities. One small boat sometimes
takes in one night twenty-five rup, amounting to six hundred
weight; but it must be observed, that the pound here, as well as
in other parts of Italy, consists but of twelve ounces.
Anchovies, besides their making a considerable article in the
commerce of Nice, are a great resource in all families. The
noblesse and burgeois sup on sallad and anchovies, which are
eaten on all their meagre days. The fishermen and mariners all
along this coast have scarce any other food but dry bread, with a
few pickled anchovies; and when the fish is eaten, they rub their
crusts with the brine. Nothing can be more delicious than fresh
anchovies fried in oil: I prefer them to the smelts of the
Thames. I need not mention, that the sardines and anchovies are
caught in nets; salted, barrelled, and exported into all the
different kingdoms and states of Europe. The sardines, however,
are largest and fattest in the month of September. A company of
adventurers have farmed the tunny-fishery of the king, for six
years; a monopoly, for which they pay about three thousand pounds
sterling. They are at a very considerable expence for nets,
boats, and attendance. Their nets are disposed in a very curious
manner across the small bay of St. Hospice, in this
neighbourhood, where the fish chiefly resort. They are never
removed, except in the winter, and when they want repair: but
there are avenues for the fish to enter, and pass, from one
inclosure to another. There is a man in a boat, who constantly
keeps watch. When he perceives they are fairly entered, he has a
method for shutting all the passes, and confining the fish to one
apartment of the net, which is lifted up into the boat, until the
prisoners are taken and secured. The tunny-fish generally runs
from fifty to one hundred weight; but some of them are much
larger. They are immediately gutted, boiled, and cut in slices.
The guts and head afford oil: the slices are partly dried, to be
eaten occasionally with oil and vinegar, or barrelled up in oil,
to be exported. It is counted a delicacy in Italy and Piedmont,
and tastes not unlike sturgeon. The famous pickle of the
ancients, called garum, was made of the gills and blood of the
tunny, or thynnus. There is a much more considerable fishery of
it in Sardinia, where it is said to employ four hundred persons;
but this belongs to the duc de St. Pierre. In the neighbourhood
of Villa Franca, there are people always employed in fishing for
coral and sponge, which grow adhering to the rocks under water.
Their methods do not favour much of ingenuity. For the coral,
they lower down a swab, composed of what is called spunyarn on
board our ships of war, hanging in distinct threads, and sunk by
means of a great weight, which, striking against the coral in its
descent, disengages it from the rocks; and some of the pieces
being intangled among the threads of the swab, are brought up
with it above water. The sponge is got by means of a cross-stick,
fitted with hooks, which being lowered down, fastens upon it, and
tears it from the rocks.
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