Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/236

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the Net, others would cover themselves in the Sand, that they might not be taken; others strove to bite the Meashes of the Net, though made of coarse Flax or Hemp, of which kind were the Synodontes, Fish armed with strong Teeth; and if one made way for himself, all would follow him, and so the whole Draught would escape, and not a Fish left for the Fisher. To remedy this Inconvenience, (for I was aware of it) I stood with a Pole in my Hand, beating the Water, that I might keep the Fish from biting the Net. At which my Attendants could not choose but laugh; yet, for all this, many of them escaped: So sagacious are Fishes where they are in extream danger! But notwithstanding the Fugitives, we brought a great many Fishes ashore, a Sea-Bream, Scorpion-Fishes, Dragon-Fishes, Scare-Fish, Jule-Fish, Chane or Ruff-Fish, whose Variety did delight my Eye, and the enquiry into their Nature, did hugely please my Fancy: So that at Night I return'd home with my trimphant Vessel laden with Prey. The next Day I presented Hali Bassa, and his Chief Steward, with Part of what I had taken, who thought it a very acceptable Present.

Sometimes I took delight, with an Iron Spear made on purpose, to bring up Shrimps or Cramps, which are there so thick, as if that Sea were stock'd with them. Where I observed the Master-Shrimps lying two by two, the Male and the Female, and sometimes more of them, of which Cicero, Pliny, and Athenæus speak so much. I confess, I think some of these Relations concerning them are rather fabulous than true: For they say, that this Shell-Fish doth gape in order to catch other small Fishes; and when she hath got them, yet she shuts not her Shell till the Pinncphylax bite it, and by this warning she closes her Shell, and divides the Prey with the Pinncphylax. The Figure of these Pinnæ you have