Faber, pp. 37, 38, “of fresh-water fishes, twenty-one species, among them the fresh-water Perch, are also common to the sea: amongst the sea fishes, the flounder frequents brackish water, and sometimes enters the rivers: others only occasionally frequent the lagoons and brackish waters, among them the Gilthead,” a statement incidentally confirmed by Martial (_Ep._ XIII. 90) in his helluous _pronunciamento_, that practically the only really good _Aurata_ was that whose haunt was the Lucrine lake, and whose whole world was its oyster! of which fish Martial (XIII. 90) seems only appreciative, “ ... cui solus erit concha Lucrina cibus.” [558] Faber, _op. cit._, 86. Cf. _Revue Contemporaine_, June 30 and July 15, 1854, where the fisheries at Comacchio are described at length. CHAPTER XVI LEGAL REGULATIONS OF ROME AS REGARDS FISHING Previous instances of taking fish belonging to another have so far only been attended by divine or superhuman punishment. I venture now a few sentences on what were the Roman (I have discovered no Greek) legal regulations—for there does not appear to have existed at Rome any special _law_ on Fishing—and how the rights of fisheries and fishers were protected. From the evidence available it is clear— (1) That among _Res Nullius_, or things belonging to no one, were fish and wild animals in a state of nature. The _Digest_, 41. 1. 1, lays down that “omnia animalia, quæ terra, mari, cælo capiuntur, id est feræ bestiæ, volucres, et pisces, capientum fiunt.” (2) That they became the property of the person who first “reduces them into possession,” _i.e._ captures them. (3) That the sea and public rivers were not capable of individual ownership. (4) That no citizen could be prevented from fishing in the sea and such rivers by any person. To this rule there are several exceptions; for instance, (_a_) a cove of the sea bordering on a man’s land—perhaps if enclosed with stakes, etc.—could be exclusively occupied for fishing (_Digest_, 47. 10, ss. 13 and 14); (_b_) a right of fishing in a recess or backwater of a public river could be acquired by prescription, and would then be protected by a possessory Interdict against any one who tried to fish this water (_Ibid._, 44. 3. 7). It is hard to define precisely what constituted a public river and what a private river. Under the term “public” came all rivers of any size, not merely those that were tidal. Whether a river was public depended not only on its size, but also on the “opinion of those dwelling around it.” No river, periodically dry in summer, could be accounted public (_Digest_, 43. 12, ss. 1-4). All streams not public, many lakes, and all _piscinæ_, etc., were private property, from which the owner could prevent any one taking fish. The legal remedy for such exclusion, based on the ground of trespass, was Interdict—a procedure very similar to that of Scotland, whose law is mainly modelled on that of Rome.