Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/79

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OF CORSICA.
69

Sardinas, which is of an exquisite taste. And in several places, the Corsicans have beds of oysters, remarkably large; of which they have not only a sufficiency for their own consumption, but export a great many to Italy.

From the earliest times, Corsica has been famous for its excellent fish. Juvenal, when satyrising the excessive luxury of the Romans in his time, who brought every delicacy from the greatest distance, says,

Mullus erit domini qiiem misit Corfica.

Juv. Sat. V. I. 92.

A precious mullet from the Corsick seas.
Nor less the master's pamper'd taste can please.


And since I am talking of the productions of the Corsican sea, I may observe, that they here fish great quantities of coral, of all the three kinds, white, red and black. But I shall say more of this, when I come to the commerce of Corsica.

Corsica hath as great a variety of animals as most countries. The horses here, are in general of a very small breed. Procopius in his wars of the Goths, says, they run about in herds, and were little bigger than sheep[1]. They are, however, remarkably lively, and very hardy, somewhat of the nature of Welch ponies, or of the little horses cal-

  1. Procop. de Bell. Goth. lib. iii. cap. 24.