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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
The Romans
and Trade
A N D R É TC H E R N I A
Translated by James Grieve
(with Elizabeth Minchin)
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Oxford University Press 2016
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2011 by Centre Jean Bérard & Centre Camille Jullian
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
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above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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ISBN 978–0–19–872371–4
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
Acknowledgements
Two chapters, ‘The Dromedary of the Peticcii and Trade with the East’ and
‘Winds and Coins’, are reprinted from Crossings, Early Mediterranean Con-
tacts with India, edited by Federico De Romanis and André Tchernia, with
permission from Manohar Publishers.
Every effort has been made to contact the translator(s) of these chapters. If
contacted, the publisher will be pleased to rectify any omissions at the earliest
opportunity.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
Contents
x Contents
Contents xi
References 317
Index of Sources 365
Geographical Index 372
Subject Index 378
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
List of Figures
Part I
The Romans and Trade
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 1/9/2016, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 1/9/2016, SPi
Introduction
1 2
Horace, Carm. I. 3, 21–4. Domergue (2008), 28–30.
3
Cf. the title of Horden and Purcell’s well-known work, The Corrupting Sea (2000).
4
Plato, Lg. IV. 704–5; Aristotle, Pol. VII. 6,1 (1326b); Cicero, Rep. II. 5–9; Agr. II. 95.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 1/9/2016, SPi
5 6
Appian, VIII (Lib.), 86–9. Philostratus, VA IV. 32.
7 8
Oltramare (1926: 49–54). Pliny, XVIII. 7, 18; Livy, III. 26, 9–10.
9
e.g., Propertius, I. 17, 13 ff.; II. 7, 26–38.
10
Seneca, Helv. X. 5. See many more examples in Giacchero (1980: 1097–1113).
11
Grantham (1997) qualifies this principle somewhat for wheat supply to towns in northern
Europe but not for Mediterranean towns.
12
Aristotle, Pol. VII. 4 (1327a).
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 1/9/2016, SPi
Introduction 5
and, after having developed his own version of the drawbacks of port cities, he
gives a sentence to this substantial advantage: the possibility of bringing in by
sea products from all peoples and of exporting wherever one wishes those
from one’s own territory. This was why Romulus, no doubt foreseeing that
Rome would become a super-city, established it ideally on the Tiber, where it
could receive both products arriving by sea and those brought down from the
hinterland.13
During the Empire, this super-city, the like of which the Mediterranean
world would never see again until the twentieth century, is often estimated to
have had a million inhabitants.14 Urban centres of comparable magnitude did
not arise in Western Europe until the end of the eighteenth century (London)
and the middle of the nineteenth century (Paris). This comparison, however, is
misleading, in that London and Paris stand at the centre of broad and very
fertile sedimentary basins; and this could not be said of either the fertility or,
especially, the extent of the Roman campagna.15 The greater part of the goods
that provided the wealth of the capital of the Roman Empire and made for its
upkeep had to come in by sea. Such a statement necessarily implies that
seaborne trade developed on a scale out of all proportion with what the
Mediterranean had seen previously and which would probably not be sur-
passed in pre-industrial times. The moral diatribes counterpointed a rapid
increase in commercial shipping starting in the third century BC, as is attested
by the numbers of wrecks counted.16
Alongside the diatribes, the first century AD begins to see signs of wonder-
ment at the networks that, thanks to Rome, now link different parts of the
world, and at the number of vessels sailing into its harbours. In Varro,
Columella, and Tacitus (through the words of Tiberius), the ideal of self-
sufficiency can still be seen behind passages deploring the fact that Italy’s
provisioning requires importation of wheat, wine, and oil, that the country
‘depends on external supplies and that the life of the Roman nation is tossed
day after day at the uncertain mercy of wave and wind’ (trans. W. D. Hooper;
rev. H. B. Ash).17 Pliny, however, though he still speaks of seas ‘desecrated by
traders’,18 says at the start of the same book: ‘For who would not admit that,
now that the world has been unified through the majesty of the Roman
13
Aristotle, Pol. VII. 6, 2 (1327a); Cicero, Rep. II. 10.
14
The population of Istanbul had probably reached 600,000 by the seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries (Özveren 2003: n. 5) and by 1900 was close to one million; in the western
Mediterranean, the largest city in the late nineteenth century was Naples, with 600,000
inhabitants.
15
See Ch. 11; see also Morley (1996: 63–5 and passim).
16
Parker (1992); van der Mersch (2001); Cibecchini (2008).
17
Varro, R., II, praef., 3; Columella, I, praef., 20; Tacitus, Ann. III. 54.
18
Pliny, XIV. 52: non maria plus temerata conferre mercatori, non in Rubrum litus Indicumve
merces petitas quam sedulum ruris larem.
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19
Pliny, XIV. 2. On this passage, see Nicolet (1988), 209–10.
20
Manilius, Astr. 4, 169–70: orbisque orbi bona vendere posse/totque per ignotas commercia
jungere terras.
21 Seneca, Ep. 87, 20–1 (cf. Vergil, G. I. 53–8). The same idea is in Philo, Leg. ad Gaium, 47.
22
Pliny, XI. 240: ubi omnium gentium bona comminus judicantur; Florus, I. 4,2; Aelius
Aristides, XXVI. 11; Galen, XIV. 24 (Kühn).
23
Florus, I. 1, 4: ut totius mundi opes et commeatus illo velut maritimo urbis hospitio
reciperentur.
24
Aelius Aristides, XXVI. 12–13.
25
[οἱ] ἔμποροί σου ἦσαν οἱ μεγιστᾶνες τῆς γῆς (Revelations, 18:23).
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Introduction 7
perfumes and aromatics, and finally the indispensables of life26—namely,
wine, oil, similago,27 wheat, livestock and horses, and of course, bringing up
the rear, slaves.28 Two missing items are surprising: pepper, as luxury; salt fish,
as daily necessity. But the principle of an inventory combining the most exotic
things and the most everyday is one to note.
No serious scholar doubts the scale of commercial activity under the Roman
Empire. Anyone who claims that Moses Finley restricted this activity to luxury
goods has not read either what he says about Rome (‘a fabulous consumer of
wine’29) or what he says about Lyons,30 or the more frequently quoted passage
in which he stresses that ‘the intrusion of genuine market (commercial) trade,
on a considerable scale and over very great distances, into the Graeco-Roman
world had a feedback effect on peasant markets and the rest to such a degree as
to render the primitive models all but useless’.31 Several authors have calcu-
lated the numbers of ships and investments required to keep Rome supplied.32
My own estimates33 lead me to the conclusion that the whole eighteenth-
century French fleet would not have sufficed.
In recent years, two essential pieces of evidence have vastly increased the
sums entailed in the trade in luxury goods, at any rate those from the Orient,
such as precious stones, pearls, silk, ivory, and perfumes, which come foremost
in the list in Revelations, and to which must be added pepper.
The verso of the Vienna papyrus G 40822 (SB XVIII 13167), first published
in 1983 and the subject of several studies,34 gives the tail end of an estimate of
the prices of goods conveyed by a vessel named Hermapollon. It had come
from India, with a cargo of Gangetic nard, ivory, and other items detailed in
26
I borrow the distinction between the superfluous and the indispensables of life from
Polybius (IV. 38, 4), who actually includes in the latter category small livestock and slaves.
The distinction made between necessaria and supervacua is a standard one (e.g. Seneca, Ep. 110,
11). The list in Revelations coincides with and extends the list of goods that merchants from the
East showed, to no avail, to Verres to prove they were not soldiers of Sertorius: purple, incense,
perfumes, linen cloths, precious stones, pearls, wines from Greece, Asian slaves (Cicero, Verr. 2.
v.146).
27
A refined flour made from hard wheat, on which see De Romanis (2003b) and p. 199.
28
Revelations, 18:12–13.
29
Finley (1985: 238, n. 24 = 1975b: 179, n. 24).
30
He quotes Rostovtzeff (‘Lyons was not only the great clearing-house for the commerce in
corn, wine, oil, and lumber; she was also one of the largest centres in the Empire for the
manufacture and distribution of most of the articles consumed by Gaul, Germany and Britain’);
and he adds: ‘This may be excessively exuberant, but there can be no dispute about the volume
and importance of the trade passing through such centres’ (1985: 59 = 1975b: 74). It should be
noted that this passage from Rostovtzeff is the very one chosen by Morley (2007: 3) as an
example of modernism.
31
Finley (1987: 37 = 1975a). For various people’s inability to understand and caricatures
intended to add to the controversy, see Bang (1998) and Saller (2002).
32
Hopkins (1983); Rathbone (2003).
33
See pp. 196–7.
34
Latterly by De Romanis (1996a: 192–200; 1998); Rathbone (2000); and especially Morelli
(2011). For earlier literature on the matter, see p. 238, n. 33.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 1/9/2016, SPi
35
De Romanis (2004, 2006).
36
See Braudel (1979: 357), who found this information in a book by W. Abel citing
H. H. Mauruschat. I came across the reference to Braudel in a seminar given by Dominic
Rathbone. In the light of these amounts, Braudel wonders whether ‘the economic impact of
luxury trade is not too easily underestimated’.
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Introduction 9
mentioned in the Vienna papyrus and the Palmyra inscription.37 The bulk of
such goods ended up in Rome, contributing to a volume of trade that of
necessity required the input of substantial capital. I shall come back to
this later.
So let us not be too sceptical about the impression of the gigantic scale that
we get from the calculations of tonnages and wealth required for the daily
supply of food to Rome and for importing luxury goods. However, it should be
remembered that all the examples I have given up till now relate only to
consumption in the capital of the Empire and have nothing to say about what
was happening elsewhere. Whatever is said about Rome is not said about the
Empire or about the wider Roman economy.
In addition, the sheer amounts mobilized or paid over are not enough for us
to define the nature of a commercial system or to state that it is similar to some
other. Size is not everything. In recent years, the fashion for placing the Roman
economy on a comparative scale devised for Europe between the fourteenth
and the nineteenth centuries has obscured the fact that peculiar to it were
many features that it would be most interesting to spell out and that cast doubt
on any attempt to fit it into some exact slot of European economic develop-
ment. All I propose to do here is ask three questions. Who controlled trade?
To what extent did it flow through the whole of the Empire? What were the
factors that set a commercial flow in motion?
37
See also pp. 238–42.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
Antiquity defined traders solely as men who bought and sold. Selling what one
produces is not trade, at least not in the case of landowners. This has often been
pointed out,1 though some have had difficulty in grasping this ‘simple and strict’
distinction, as described by Andrea Giardina, who has traced its origin back to
Plato.2 Matters of social propriety and of the respectability or lack of it of engaging
in trade are irrelevant if one is selling what is produced by one’s own estate.
These words must be taken in their broadest connotation. The most explicit
statement comes from Varro’s De re rustica. At the beginning of the treatise,
Varro engages in a long discussion of whether animal husbandry is relevant or
not to a book on agriculture. His own view is that it is not. He eventually
resorts to comparisons: if the breeding of livestock is included, then why not
include also the exploitation of clay-pits, which was held by the Sasernae to be
part of agriculture, or the quarrying of sand or stone, or even mining?
Obviously, these activities should be engaged in and profit made from them;
but he cannot see them as having anything to do with agriculture, any more
than inns have to do with it, though tabernae deversoriae should be built by
anyone who has the good fortune to live by a busy road.3 A little earlier in his
1
With particular clarity by Whittaker (1985: 57–8).
2
Giardina (2002a: 333 (Giardina and Gurevič 1994: 29)); Plato, Sph. 223d.
3
Rust. I. 2, 22–3. See also Vitruvius, VI. 5, 2.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
4
Morel (2009: 69–75) has given a diametrically opposite reading of the same pages in Varro.
5
Dig. XXXIII. 7, 25. Also VII. I, 13, 5; VIII. 3, 6; XVIII. 1, 77; XXVII. 9, 3, 6. These last
references include mines, lime kilns, stone quarries, and sand and gravel pits, matching exactly
what Varro says.
6
Dig. V. 3, 27, 1: in multorum honestorum virorum praediis lupanaria exercentur.
7
Which is why Varro always uses the word fructus, never quaestus (this note corrects an
earlier interpretation of mine, still to be seen on p. 169, n. 80). On the terms fructus, quaestus,
and reditus, see Minaud (2005: 265–75); Andreau (2007a).
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
Where should one take one’s goods and to whom should one sell them? If
landowners set no limit to the extent of their activities, then, in relation to the
products of their estate they were exercising all the functions of the trader
while not being traders; and, from an economic point of view, the greatest of
these landowners were active not only in production but in commerce.
On this matter, Varro sheds further light. His chapter 16 deals with the
conditions surrounding the estate, ‘for they too vitally concern agriculture
because of their relation to it’. On this matter, four points should be examined:
whether the neighbourhood is unsafe; whether it is such that it is not profitable to
transport our products to it, or to bring back what we need; third, whether usable
roads or streams are either wanting or inadequate; and fourth, whether condi-
tions on the neighbouring farms are such as to benefit or to injure our land.
(trans. W. D. Hooper; rev. H. B. Ash)10
The first of these points relates to the safety of the surrounding area: too many
bandits would compromise any kind of business. The second says that an
estate must not be too hemmed in; it must have ready outlets (evectos)
enabling the transport and sale of what is grown. If there is a town close by,
that is a plus; and one must accordingly opt for particular crops, of the sort
that are sold only there—for example, fields of violets and roses.
Again, if there are towns or villages in the neighbourhood, or even well-furnished
lands and farmsteads of rich owners, from which you can purchase at a reasonable
8
Dig. VII. 1, 13, 5.
9
Veyne (2001: 151–2 (1979a: 273–4)). Nor do I include in that category the brothel
established by Caligula on the Palatine, which was deemed scandalous because he made matrons
and young free-born boys work there.
10
Rust. I. 16, 1. Here Varro is tidying up the advice of Cato, Agr. 1, which Pliny would also do:
XVIII. 6, 26–8. See also Columella, I. 2, 3.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
11
Varro, Rust. I. 16.3.
12
This was the system of delegating powers ad mercium distractionem, Dig. XIV. 3, 5, 12,
and 3, 16.
13
Plaustra, heavy wagons with two or four wheels, usually drawn by two oxen.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/9/2016, SPi
14
II. 6, 5. Frank (1959: v. 279) had already made the incidental comment: ‘it is interesting to
see that Varro assumes that the trader gets the produce from the estate and transports it to the
sea.’ For the beginning of Varro’s sentence, I draw on his translation; and for the end of it, the
version by Manacorda (1994, 1998).
15
III. 16,11: velle expectare ut suo potius tempore mercatorem admitterent. The translation of
mercatorem as client (= ‘customer’) in the series published by Universités de France (Charles
Guiraud, 1997) speaks volumes about the ambiguous reaction of the modern reader. The passage
has been studied by Morley (1996: 161; 2000: 216, 219). On the custom of delaying selling until
prices were high, see I, 69, 1.
16
XII. 52, 14.
17
Credit goes to Bernard Liou for having drawn attention to this text (Liou and Gassend,
1990: 206).
18
See pp. 143–4. On the matter of Pliny’s dealings with his traders, I share the view of Nicolet
(1988: 148) and Morley (2000: 219). There was no negotiation between the parties; but rebates
based on a just proportion of the value of the goods bought enhanced Pliny’s good name in the
neighbourhood, which was what he wanted.
19
For further details and references, see p. 142.
20
XXXIX. 4, 9, 8: mercatores autem, qui de fundis fiscalibus mercari consuerunt.
Another random document with
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tail. In some the snout is short and obtuse, in others long and
decurved, with or without appendage.
Of Gymnarchus one species only is known, G. niloticus, which
occurs in the Nile and West African rivers, and attains a length of six
feet. The form of its body is eel-like, and each jaw is armed with a
series of incisor-like teeth. Like Mormyrus, Gymnarchus possesses a
pseudo-electric organ, thickest on the tail, tapering in front, and
extending nearly to the head. It consists of four membranaceous
tubes intimately connected with the surrounding muscles, and
containing prismatic bodies arranged in the manner of a paternoster.
The air-bladder of Gymnarchus is cellular, very extensible, and
communicates with the dorsal side of the œsophagus by a duct
possessing a sphincter.
[See Erdl, Münchner Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1846, xxiii., and Hyrtl,
Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien. 1856. xii.]
Thirteenth Family—Sternoptychidæ.
Body naked, or with very thin deciduous scales; barbels none.
Margin of the upper jaw formed by the maxillary and intermaxillary,
both of which are toothed; opercular apparatus not completely
developed. Gill-opening very wide; pseudobranchiæ present or
absent; air-bladder simple, if present. Adipose fin present, but
generally rudimentary. Series of phosphorescent bodies along the
lower parts. The eggs are enclosed in the sacs of the ovarium, and
excluded by oviducts.
Pelagic and Deep-sea fishes of small size.
Sternoptyx.—Trunk much elevated and compressed, with the
trunk of the tail very short. Body covered with a silvery pigment,
without regular scales; series of phosphorescent spots run along the
lower side of the head, body, and tail. Cleft of the mouth wide, vertical,
with the lower jaw prominent. Jaws armed with small teeth. Eyes
rather large, and although lateral, directed upwards and placed close
together. Ventral fins very small. A series of imbricate scutes runs
along the abdomen, forming a kind of serrature. The dorsal fin is
short, and occupies about the middle of the length of the fish; it is
preceded by the first commencement of the formation of a spinous
dorsal, several neural spines being prolonged beyond the dorsal
muscle forming a triangular osseous plate. Adipose fin rudimentary;
anal short; caudal forked.
These small fishes are now and then picked up in the
Mediterranean and Atlantic. According to the dredging-records of the
“Challenger,” they and the allied genera Argyropelecus and
Polyipnus would descend to depths of respectively 1100 and 2500
fathoms; but the form of their body and their whole organisation
render this statement very improbable; they most likely live at a small
depth during the daytime, coming to the surface at night, like many
Scopelus.
Coccia and Maurolicus are two other genera allied to the
preceding.
Fourteenth Family—Stomiatidæ.
Skin naked, or with exceedingly delicate scales; a hyoid barbel.
Margin of the upper jaw formed by the intermaxillary and maxillary
which are both toothed; opercular apparatus but little developed. Gill-
opening very wide; pseudobranchiæ none. The eggs are enclosed in
the sacs of the ovarium, and excluded by oviducts.
Deep-sea fishes, descending to the greatest depths,
characterised by their barbel and their formidable dentition.
Fig. 286.—Astronesthes niger. The white spots in front of the eye are
phosphorescent organs.
Some have two dorsal fins, the posterior of which is adipose; they
belong to the genus Astronesthes, are the smallest of the family, and
frequently met with in the Atlantic.
The others—viz. Stomias, Echiostoma, Malacosteus, and
Bathyophis, lack the adipose fin, the rayed dorsal being opposite to
the anal. Of these the one longest known is
Stomias.—Body elongate, compressed, covered with exceedingly
fine and deciduous scales, which are scarcely imbricate, lying in
subhexagonal impressions; vent situated at no great distance from the
caudal fin. Head compressed, with the snout very short, and with the
cleft of the mouth very wide. Teeth pointed, unequal in size, those of
the intermaxillaries and of the mandible being the longest; maxillary
finely denticulated; vomer with a pair of fangs; palatine bones and
tongue with smaller pointed teeth. Eye of moderate size. Opercular
portion of the head narrow. A fleshy barbel in the centre of the hyoid
region. Dorsal opposite the anal, close to the caudal; pectoral and
ventral fins feeble, the latter inserted behind the middle of the length
of the body. Series of phosphorescent dots run along the lower side of
the head, body, and tail. Gill-opening very wide. Pyloric appendages
none.
Three species are known; beside specimens which were found
floating on the surface, others have been dredged from depths
varying between 450 and 1800 fathoms.
Fifteenth Family—Salmonidæ.
Body generally covered with scales; head naked; barbels none.
Margin of the upper jaw formed by the intermaxillaries mesially, and
by the maxillaries laterally. Belly rounded. A small adipose fin behind
the dorsal. Pyloric appendages generally numerous, rarely absent.
Air-bladder large, simple; pseudobranchiæ present. The ova fall into
the cavity of the abdomen before exclusion.
Inhabitants of the sea and freshwater; the majority of the marine
genera are deep-sea forms. The freshwater forms are peculiar to the
temperate and arctic zones of the Northern Hemisphere, one
occurring in New Zealand; many freshwater species periodically or
occasionally descending to the sea. One of the most valuable
families of the class of fishes. No fossils of the freshwater forms are
known; but of the marine genera, Osmerus occurs in the greensand
of Ibbenbusen, and in the schists of Glaris and Licata; a species of
Mallotus, indistinguishable from the living M. villosus, occurs
abundantly in nodules of clay of unknown geological age in
Greenland. Other genera, as Osmeroides, Acrognathus, and
Aulolepis, from the chalk of Lewes, belong to the same fauna as
species of Beryx, and were probably deep-sea Salmonoids.
Salmo.—Body covered with small scales. Cleft of the mouth wide,
the maxillary extending to below or beyond the eye. Dentition well
developed; conical teeth in the jaw bones, on the vomer and
palatines, and on the tongue, none on the pterygoid bones. Anal
short, with less than fourteen rays. Pyloric appendages numerous;
ova large. Young specimens with dark cross-bands (Parr-marks).
We know of no other group of fishes which offers so many
difficulties to the ichthyologist with regard to the distinction of the
species as well as to certain points in their life-history, as this genus,
although this may be partly due to the unusual attention which has
been given to their study, and which has revealed an almost greater
amount of unexplained facts than of satisfactory solutions of the
questions raised. The almost infinite variations of these fishes are
dependent on age, sex and sexual development, food, and the
properties of the water. Some of the species interbreed, and the
hybrids mix again with one of the parent species, thus producing an
offspring more or less similar to the pure breed. The coloration is,
first of all, subject to variation; and consequently this character but
rarely assists in distinguishing a species, there being not one which
would show in all stages of development the same kind of coloration.
The young of all the species are barred; and this is so constantly the
case that it may be used as a generic or even as a family character,
not being peculiar to Salmo alone, but also to Thymallus and
probably to Coregonus. The number of bars is not quite constant, but
the migratory Trout have two (and even three) more than the River-
Trout. In some waters River-trout remain small, and frequently retain
the Parr-marks all their lifetime; at certain seasons a new coat of
scales overlays the Parr-marks, rendering them invisible for a time;
but they reappear in time, or are distinct as soon as the scales are
removed. When the Salmones have passed this “Parr” state, the
coloration becomes much diversified. The males, especially during
and immediately after the spawning time, are more intensely
coloured and variegated than the females; specimens which have
not attained to maturity retaining a brighter silvery colour, and being
more similar to the female fish. Food appears to have less influence
on the coloration of the outer parts than on that of the flesh; thus the
more variegated specimens are frequently out of condition, whilst
well-fed individuals with pinkish flesh are of a more uniform though
bright coloration. Chemistry has not supplied us yet with an analysis
of the substance which gives the pink colour to the flesh of many
Salmonoids; but there is little doubt that it is identical with, and
produced by, the red pigments of many salt- and freshwater
Crustaceans, which form a favourite food of these fishes. The water
has a marked influence on the colours; Trout with intense ocellated
spots are generally found in clear rapid rivers, and in small open
Alpine pools; in the large lakes with pebbly bottom the fish are bright
silvery, and the ocellated spots are mixed with or replaced by X-
shaped black spots; in pools or parts of lakes with muddy or peaty
bottom, the trout are of a darker colour generally, and when enclosed
in caves or holes, they may assume an almost uniform blackish
coloration.
The change of scales (that is, the rapid reproduction of the worn
part of the scales) coincides in the migratory species with their
sojourn in the sea. The renovated scales give them a bright silvery
appearance, most of the spots disappearing or being overlaid and
hidden by the silvery scales. Now, some of the species, like S. fario,
inhabit all the different waters indicated, even brackish water, and, in
consequence, we find a great variation of colour in one and the
same species; others are more restricted in their habitat, like S.
salar, S. ferox, etc., and, therefore, their coloration may be more
precisely defined.
With regard to size the various species do not present an equal
amount of variation. Size appears to depend on the abundance of
food and the extent of the water. Thus, the Salmon and the different
kinds of great Lake-trout do not appear to vary considerably in size,
because they find the same conditions in all the localities inhabited
by them. A widely spread species, however, like S. fario, when it
inhabits a small mountain pool with scanty food, may never exceed a
weight of eight ounces, whilst in a large lake or river, where it finds
an abundance and variety of food, it attains to a weight of fourteen or
sixteen pounds. Such large River-trout are frequently named and
described as Salmon-trout, Bull-trout, etc. Further, in Salmones, as
in the majority of fishes and tailed Batrachians, there is an innate
diversity of growth in individuals hatched from the same spawn.
Some grow rapidly and normally, others more slowly, and some
remain dwarfed and stationary at a certain stage of development.
The proportions of the various parts of the body to one another
vary exceedingly in one and the same species. Beside the usual
changes from the young to the sexually mature form observed in all
fishes, the snout undergoes an extraordinary amount of alteration of
shape. In the mature male the intermaxillaries and the mandible are
produced in various degrees, and the latter is frequently more or less
bent upwards. Hence the males have the snout much more pointed
and produced, and the entire head longer, than the females; with the
intermaxillary bone the teeth, with which it is armed, are also
enlarged, sometimes to four times the size of those of the females.
And if this development of the front part of the head happens to be
going on while the individual is able to obtain only a scanty supply of
food, the usual proportions of the head and trunk are so altered that
the species is very difficult to recognise. Barren male fish approach
the females in the proportions of the head and body, but hybrid
fishes do not differ in this respect from their parents. The abundance
or scarcity of food, and the disposition or indisposition of the
Salmonoids to feed, are other causes affecting the growth or fulness
of the various parts of the body. In well-fed fishes the head is
proportionally not only smaller but also shorter, and vice versa.
The fins vary to a certain degree. The variation in the number of
the rays is inconsiderable and of no value for specific distinction. The
caudal fin undergoes considerable changes of form with age, and
dependency upon the sexual development. Young specimens of all
species have this fin more or less deeply excised, so that the young
of a species which has the caudal emarginate throughout life, is
distinguished by a deeper incision of the fin, from the young of a
species which has it truncate in the adult state. As the individuals of
a species do not all attain to maturity at the same age and at the
same size, and as mature individuals generally have the caudal less
deeply excised than immature ones of the same age and size, it is
evident that the variations in the form of the caudal are considerable
and numerous, and that it is a very misleading character if due
regard be not paid to the age and sexual development of the fish.
Further, species inhabiting rapid streams as well as still waters show
considerable variations in the form and length of all the fins; those
individuals which live in rapid streams, being in almost constant
motion and wearing off the delicate extremities of the fins, have the
fin-rays comparatively shorter and stouter, and the fins of a more
rounded form, particularly at the corners, than individuals inhabiting
ponds or lakes. Moreover, one and the same individual may pass a
part of its life in a lake, and enter a river at certain periods, thus
changing the form of its fins almost periodically.
Finally, to complete our enumeration of these variable characters,
we must mention that in old males, during and after the spawning-
season, the skin on the back becomes thickened and spongy, so that
the scales are quite invisible, being imbedded in the skin.
a. Salmones.
1. S. salar (Salmon; Lachs or Salm; Saumon) (Fig. 6, p. 43). The
Salmon can generally be readily recognised, but there are instances
in which the identification of specimens is doubtful, and in which the
following characters (besides others) will be of great assistance. The
tail is covered with relatively large scales, there being constantly
eleven, or sometimes twelve in a transverse series running from
behind the adipose fin forwards to the lateral line, whilst there are from
thirteen to fifteen in the different kinds of Sea-trout and River-trout.
The number of pyloric appendages (see Fig. 56, p. 131) is great,
generally between 60 and 70, more rarely falling to 53 or rising to 77.
The body of the vomer is armed with a single series of small teeth,
which at an early age are gradually lost from behind towards the front,
so that half-grown and old individuals have only a few (1–4) left. The
Salmon inhabits temperate Europe southwards to 43° N. lat., and is
not found in any of the rivers falling into the Mediterranean. In the New
World its southern boundary is 41° N. lat.
2. S. trutta (Sea-trout, Salmon-trout).[46]—Especially numerous in
North Britain.
3. S. cambricus (Sewin).—Wales, South of England, Ireland,
Norway, and Denmark.
4. S. fario (Common River-trout).
5. S. macrostigma (Algeria).
6. S. lemanus (Lake of Geneva).
7. S. brachypoma.—A migratory species from the rivers Forth,
Tweed, and Ouse.
8. S. gallivensis (Galway Sea-trout).
9. S. orcadensis.—A non-migratory trout from Lough Stennis, in
the Orkney Islands.
10. S. ferox.—The great Lake-trout of North Britain, Wales, and
Ireland.
11. S. stomachicus (the Gillaroo of Ireland).
12. S. nigripinnis from mountain-pools of Wales.
13. S. levenensis (Lochleven Trout).
14. S. oxi from the rivers of the Hindu Kush.
15. S. purpuratus from the Pacific coast of Asia and North
America.
16. S. macrostoma.—Japan.
17. S. namaycush.—The great Lake-trout of North America.
b. Salvelini: Charr.
1. S. umbla.—The “Ombre chevalier” of the Swiss lakes.
2. S. salvelinus.—The “Sælbling” of the Alpine lakes of Bavaria
and Austria.
3. S. alpinus.—The common Northern Charr, growing to a length of
four feet, and migratory.
4. S. killinensis.—The Loch Killin Charr, Inverness-shire.
5. S. willughbii.—The Loch Windermere Charr.
6. S. perisii.—The “Torgoch” of Wales.
7. S. grayi.—The “Freshwater Herring” of Lough Melvin, Ireland.
8. S. colii.—Charr of Loughs Eske and Dan.
9. S. hucho.—The “Huchen” of the Danube, growing to the size of
the Salmon.
10. S. alipes from lakes in Boothia Felix and Greenland.
11. S. arcturus.—The most northern species from 82° lat.
12. S. fontinalis.—The common “Brook-trout” of the United States.
13. S. oquassa.—A lake species from the State of Maine.
Oncorhynchus differs from Salmo only in the increased number
of anal rays, which are more than fourteen. All the species are
migratory, ascending American and Asiatic rivers flowing into the
Pacific. The Californian Salmon (O. quinnat?) belongs to this genus.
Other allied genera are Brachymystax and Luciotrutta.
Plecoglossus.—Body covered with very small scales. Cleft of
the mouth wide; maxillary long. Dentition feeble; intermaxillaries with a
few small, conical, pointed teeth; the teeth of the maxillaries and
mandibles are broad, truncated, lamellated and serrated, movable,
seated in a fold of the skin. The mandibles terminate each in a small
knob, and are not jointed at the symphysis. The mucous membrane in
the interior of the mouth—between the terminal halves of the
mandibles—forms a peculiar organ, being raised into folds, with a pair
of pouches in front and a single one behind. Tongue very small, with
minute teeth, its apical part being toothless; palate apparently without
teeth.
A small aberrant form of Freshwater-Salmonoids abundantly
found in Japan and the Island of Formosa.
Osmerus.—Body covered with scales of moderate size. Cleft of
the mouth wide; maxillary long, extending to, or nearly to, the hind
margin of the orbit. Dentition strong; intermaxillary and maxillary teeth
small, much smaller than those of the mandible. Vomer with a
transverse series of teeth, several of which are large, fang-like; a
series of conical teeth along the palatine and pterygoid bones. Tongue
with very strong fang-like teeth anteriorly, and with several longitudinal
series of smaller ones posteriorly. Pectoral fins moderately developed.
Pyloric appendages very short, in small number; ova small.
The “Smelt” (O. eperlanus) is common on many places of the
coasts of Northern Europe and America. In the sea it grows to a
length of eight inches; but, singularly, it frequently migrates from the
sea into rivers and lakes, where its growth is very much retarded.
That this habit is one of very old date, is evident from the fact that
this small freshwater form occurs, and is fully acclimatised in lakes
which have now no open communication with the sea. And still more
singularly, this same habit, with the same result, has been observed
in the Smelt of New Zealand (Retropinna richardsonii). The Smelt is
considered a delicacy in Europe, as well as in America, where the
same species occurs. Two other allied genera, Hypomesus and
Thaleichthys, are found on the Pacific coast of North America, the
latter being caught in immense numbers, and known by the name
“Eulachon” and “Oulachan;” it is so fat, that it is equally used as food
and as candle.
Mallotus.—Body covered with minute scales, which are
somewhat larger along the lateral line and along each side of the
belly; in mature males these scales become elongate, lanceolate,
densely tiled, with free projecting points, forming villous bands. Cleft of
the mouth wide; maxillary very thin, lamelliform, extending to below
the middle of the eye. Lower jaw the longer, partly received between
the maxillaries. Dentition very feeble; the teeth forming single series;
only the teeth on the tongue are somewhat larger and disposed in an
elliptical patch. Pectoral fins large, horizontal, with broad base. Pyloric
appendages very short, in small number; ova small.
The “Capelin” (M. villosus) is found on the Arctic coasts of
America and of Kamtschatka. It is caught in immense numbers by
the natives, who consume it fresh, or dry it for use in the winter. Its
length does not exceed nine inches.
Coregonus.—Body covered with scales of moderate size. Cleft of
the mouth small; maxillary broad, short or of moderate length, not
extending behind the orbit. Teeth, if present, extremely minute and
deciduous. Dorsal fin of moderate length; caudal deeply forked. Ova
small.