MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 469 



description. Its flesh is red, and full of fat. It feeds on 

 worms, insects, and small fishes. 



It is found in almost all the seas of the north of Europe, 

 Asia, and America. It especially prefers the neighbourhood 

 of great rivers and streams, whose fresh and rapid waters it 

 inhabits for a great portion of the year ; it ascends their 

 course for very considerable distances, and sometimes passes 

 from them into the interior lakes. 



It does not appear to inhabit the Mediterranean Sea. It 

 was unknown to Aristotle, but has been noticed by Pliny, 

 who merely tells us, however, that it was sometimes taken 

 in the Gallic provinces. It has not been observed in the lake 

 of Geneva. 



Its mode of life is truly remarkable. It is born in the 

 fresh water ; it grows in the sea ; during winter it takes re- 

 fuge in the ocean ; it passes the summer in rivers, and 

 ascends towards their source. It traverses with facility the 

 whole extent of the longest rivers. Through the Elbe it 

 proceeds as far as Bohemia ; by the Rhine it arrives in Swit- 

 zerland; by the Maragnon, whose course is nearly 800 

 leagues, it attains to the lofty Cordilleras of South America ; 

 and through the Loire it gets as far as the environs of Puy, 

 in the ancient Velay. We are also assured that it is nei- 

 ther terrified nor repelled by the vast extent of subter- 

 raneous course, and it has been asserted that salmons 

 belonging to the Persian Gulf have been found in the Caspian 

 Sea, and were recognised by the rings of gold, or silver, 

 which the rich inhabitants of the shores of that gulf had at- 

 tached to them. 



In the temperate countries, it is towards the end of winter 

 that the salmons quit the sea, their adopted country. In the 

 more northern regions, they enter into the rivers at the mo- 

 ment when the ice begins to melt on the shores of the ocean, 



