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1 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, from whom Pliny has here borrowed, makes a somewhat dissimilar statement. He says that "no noxious animal enters the Euxine, except the phocena [or porpoise], and the dolphin and little dolphin." Hardouin remarks, however, that Pliny is right in his statement that seals are to be found in the Euxine, and that Rondelet, B. xvi. c. 9, for that reason has suggested that the reading ought to be altered in Aristotle, and not in Pliny.
2 Aristotle, B. viii. c. 6. Plutarch on the Instinct of Animals, and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 42, say the same.
3 Called "chrysoceras," in B. iv. c. 18, that being the Greek name for "golden horn." He means, that in consequence of the lucrative nature of this fishery, it thence obtained the name of the "golden" horn. Dalechamps is of opinion that some person has here substituted the Latin "Aurei cornus," for the Greek name Chrysoceras.
4 Hence, according to Strabo, Chalcedon obtained the name of the "City of the Blind," the people having neglected to choose the opposite shore for the site of their city. Still, however, a kind of pelamis, or young tunny, from this place, had the name of "Chalcedonia," and is spoken of as a most exquisite dainty by Aulus Gellius, B. vii c. 16.
5 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16; Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. ix.; and Plutarch, in his Treatise on the Instincts of Animals, state to a similar effect.
6 Cuvier remarks that the "pompilos" of the ancients, which accompanied ships and left them on nearing the land, was the pilot-fish of the moderns, the Gasterosteus ductor of Linnæus. He thinks, however, that the name may have also been given to other fish as well, of similar habits.
7 Pleuronectes solea of Linnæns.
8 Pleuronectes maximus of Linnæus.
9 The cuttle-fish. The Sepia officinalis of Linnæus.
10 The ink-fish. The Sepia loligo of Linnæus.
11 Cuvier suggests that the turdus, or sea-thrush, and the merula, or sea-blackbird, were both fishes of the labrus tribe, usually known as "breams." Hippolytus Salvianus, in his book on the Water Animals, states, that in his day—both these fish were extremely well known, and that they still retained the names of tordo and merlo. Rondelet, B. vi., says, that the fish anciently called turdus, was in his time known by the name of "vielle," among the French. The dictionaries give "merling, or whiting," as the synonyme of "merula."
12 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, says, that on going into the Euxine, the trichiæ are either taken or else devoured by the other fishes, for that they are never seen to return.
13 The trichias, according to Cuvier, is a fish belonging to the family of herrings. A scholiast on Aristophanes attributes the origin of the name to the fine fish bones like hairs (θρὶξ), with which the flesh is filled, which is a characteristic peculiar to the herring kind. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 15, represents the membras, the trichis, and the trichias, as different ages of the same fish. The trichis was little, and very common. In Aristophanes, Knights, 1. 662, we find an obol mentioned as the price of a hundred. From the Acharnæ of the same author, we learn that it was salted as provision for the fleets. Cuvier thinks that everything combines to point out the sardine, the Clupea sprattus of Linnæus, as the trichis or else a similar kind of fish, the melette of the African coast, the Clupea meletta of the naturalists. In this latter case the trichias, he thinks, may have been the sardine, or, perhaps, the Clupea ficta of Lacépede, which is called the "sardine" in some places, and at Lake Garda, in Lombardy, more especially.
14 The Danube. Cuvier says, that this passage probably bears reference to the clupea ficta or finte, which, as well as the shad, is in the habit of passing up streams. As for the story of the fish finding their way to the Adriatic, it is utterly without foundation. Cuvier adds, that the main difference between the finte and the clupea alosa, or shad, is, that the former has very fine teeth, the latter none at all.
15 Pliny has already remarked, B. iii. c. 18, in reference to the supposed descent of the Argonauts from the Ister into the Adriatic, that such a passage by water was totally impossible; hence, as Hardouin says, he is obliged here to have recourse to subterraneous passages.
16 The Pleiades. See B. ii. c. 47. The rising of the Pleiades was considered the beginning of summer, being the forty-eighth day after the vernal equinox. See also B. xviii. c. 59.
17 The evening setting, namely. This took place on the fourth day before the nones of November. See B. xviii. c. 74.
18 Aristotle, Hist. Anim, B. vi. c. 16.
19 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 16. Hardouin remarks, that the tunny which Pliny mentions in c. 17, as weighing so many hundreds of pounds, must certainly have been older than this.
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- Cross-references to this page
(2):
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CHRYSO´CERAS
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CONSTANTINO´POLIS
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(3):
- Lewis & Short, delphīnus
- Lewis & Short, rōstrum
- Lewis & Short, trans-vŏlo