“Man annually seizes upon a prodigious quantity of cods, and were it not for the immense extent of the means of reproduction allowed to it by nature, the species for a long time past would have been annihilated. It is even hardly conceived how it has been possible to preserve it; for it is well known, that as early as 1368, the inhabitants of Amsterdam had brought up fishermen on the coast of Sweden; and, in the first quarter of 1792, according to a report presented to the minister, Roland, at the National Convention, that, from the ports of France only, 210 vessels, forming together 191,158 tons, went out for the cod fisheries; and that every year more than 10,000 vessels of all nations employed at this trade, throw in the commercial world more than 40,000,000 of salted and dried cod. If we add to this enumeration the havoc made among the legions of these fishes by the great _squales_, sharks, and others, besides the destruction of a multitude of young ones by the other inhabitants of the seas and sea birds, together with the myriads of eggs destroyed by accident, it really is extraordinary to see this fish in so great a quantity now; but who can wonder, since each female can every year give birth to more than 9,000,000 of young ones.”--DR. CLOQUET. PERCH. The Greeks were acquainted with the perch.[XXI-159] Diocles used to give the flesh to the sick;[XXI-160] Xenocrates extolled those from the Rhine;[XXI-161] and Ausonius, the poet, has sung the praises of those fed in the Moselle.[XXI-162] With the Romans, this fish obtained a renown almost equal to that bestowed on the trout; and all eyes bespoke its welcome at supper, when it appeared on the table, covered with a seasoning in which pepper, alisander, cummin, and onions were artistically combined with stoned Damascus plums--thanks to the clever use of wine, vinegar, sweet wine, oil, and cooked wine. This ingenious amalgamation acquired over a slow fire the requisite consistence and cohesion.[XXI-163] SCATE. The ancients liked or disliked scate, according to the places where they eat it. So, now, this fish is rejected in Sardinia, and thought excellent in London and Paris.[XXI-164] The Greek gastronomists of fashion sometimes partook of the back of the scate;[XXI-165] the remainder seemed unworthy of their attention, and a certain poet maintains that a piece of stuff, boiled, offers to the palate a flavour quite as agreeable.[XXI-166] Italian gluttony always gave a cold reception to this dish, which they owed to the Greek cooks, and which their magiric writers have not sufficiently studied. Aristotle knew of two species of scate;[XXI-167] Pliny speaks of them;[XXI-168] Lacépède enumerates thirty-nine species.[XXI-169]