Ὥσπερ τοὺς τὰ δίκτυα διασημαίνοντας ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ φελλοὺς ὁρῶμεν ἐπιφερομένους.—De Genio Socratis, p. 1050, ed. Steph.
[723] Μικρὸν καὶ τοὺς φελλοὺς ἐδέησε κατασύραι ὕφαλον τὸ δίκτυον ἐξογκούμενον. —Epist. i. 1.
Passages have been already produced from Plutarch, Artemidorus, and the Alexandrine version of Isaiah and Habakkuk, in which the sean is mentioned by its Greek name σαγήνη, in contradistinction to other kinds of nets. Also the passage above cited from Virgil’s Georgics (“pelagoque alius trahit humida lina”), indicates the use of the sean in deep water, and the practice of dragging it out of the water by means of ropes, which gave origin both to its English name, the Drag-net, and to its Latin appellations, tragula, used by Pliny (l. c.), and tragum, which is found in the ancient Glossaries and in Isidore of Seville[724].
[724] Tragum genus retis, ab eo quod trahatur nuncupatum: ipsum est et verriculum. Verrere enim trahere est.—Orig. xix. 5.
The Latin name verriculum occurs in a passage of Valerius Maximus, which is also remarkable for a reference to the Ionian fisheries, and for the use of the word jactus, literally, a throw, corresponding to that which the Cornish men denominate, a hawl of fish.
A piscatoribus in Milesia regione verriculum trahentibus quidam jactum emerat.—Memor. lib. iv. cap. 1.
We introduce here an expression of Philo, in which we may remark that βόλος ἰχθύων corresponds exactly to jactus in Latin, and that the drawing of the net into a circle is clearly indicated: βόλον ἰχθύων πάντας ἐν κύκλῳ σαγηνεύσας.—Vita Mosis, tom. ii. p. 95. ed. Mangey.
We find mention of the sean more especially for the capture of the tunny and of the pelamys, which were the two principal kinds of fish caught in the Mediterranean. Lucian speaks of the tunny-sean[725], which was probably the largest net of the kind, and he relates the circumstance of a tunny escaping from its bag or bosom[726]. The sean is thrice mentioned in the Epistles of Alciphron (l. c. and lib. i. epp. 17, 18.), and in the two latter passages, as used for catching tunnies and pelamides. We read also of a dolphin (δελφὶς) approaching the sean[727]; but this might be by accident. It was not, we apprehend, employed to catch dolphins.
[725] Σαγήνη θυννευτική.—Epist. Saturn. tom. iii. p. 406. ed. Reitz.
[726] Ὁ θύννος ἐκ μυχοῦ τῆς σαγήνης διέφυγεν.—Timon, § 22. tom. i. p. 136.