CHAP. 32.—THAT THE SAME KINDS ARE NOT EVERYWHERE EQUALLY ESTEEMED.
There is this also in the nature of fish, that some are more highly esteemed in one place, and some in another; such, for instance, as the coracinus[2426] in Egypt, the zeus,[2427] also called the faber,[2428] at Gades, the salpa,[2429] in the vicinity of Ebusus,[2430] which is considered elsewhere an unclean fish, and can nowhere[2431] be thoroughly cooked, wherever found, without being first beaten with a stick: in Aquitania, again, the river salmon[2432] is preferred to all the fish that swim in the sea.
CHAP. 33.—GILLS AND SCALES.
Some fishes have numerous gills, others again single[2433] ones, others double; it is by means of these that they discharge the water that has entered the mouth. A sign of old age[2434] is the hardness of the scales, which are not alike in all. There are two lakes[2435] of Italy at the foot of the Alps, called Larius and Verbanus, in which there are to be seen every year, at the rising of the Vergiliæ,[2436] fish remarkable for the number of their scales, and the exceeding sharpness[2437] of them, strongly resembling hob-nails[2438] in appearance; these fish, however, are only to be seen during that month,[2439] and no longer.
CHAP. 34. (19.)—FISHES WHICH HAVE A VOICE.—FISHES WITHOUT GILLS.
Arcadia produces a wonder in its fish called exocœtus,[2440] from the fact that it comes ashore to sleep. In the neighbourhood of the river Clitorius,[2441] this fish is said to be gifted with powers of speech, and to have no gills;[2442] by some writers it is called the adonis.
CHAP. 35.—FISHES WHICH COME ON LAND. THE PROPER TIME FOR CATCHING FISH.
Those fish, also, which are known by the name of sea-mice,[2443] as well as the polypi[2444] and the murænæ,[2445] are in the habit of coming ashore—besides which, there is in the rivers of India[2446] one kind that does this, and then leaps back again into the water—for they are found to pass over into standing waters and streams. Most fishes have an evident instinct, which teaches them where to spawn in safety; as in such places there are no enemies found to devour their young, while at the same time the waves are much less violent. It will be still more a matter of surprise, to find that they thus have an appreciation of cause and effect, and understand the regular recurrence of periods, when we reflect how few persons there are that know that the most favourable time for taking fish is while the sun is passing through the sign of Pisces.[2447]