Class IV. STURGEON. 125 



in fpring or fummer, but in vaft quantities in au- 

 tumn and winter, when they cr5wd from the fea 

 under the ice, and are then taken in great numbers. 

 Whether the acipenfer is the fturgeon of the 

 moderns, may be doubted, otherwife Ovid would 

 never have fpoke of it as a foreign fifh ; 



Tuque peregrinis, Acipenfer , nobilis undis. 

 And, thou, a fifh in foreign feas renowned. 



It being well known that it is not uncommon 

 in the Mediterranean, and even in the mouth of 

 the Tiber, at certain feafons; but this paffage leaves 

 us as much in the dark as to the particular fpe- 

 cies intended, by the word acipenfer, as the de- 

 fcription Pliny has given us ; for that philofopher 

 relates, that its fcales are placed in a contrary direc- 

 tion to thofe of other fifi^ being turned towards the 

 mouth* which difagrees with the character of all 

 that are known at prefent. Whatever Mi it might 

 be, it was certainly the fame with the Elops, or 

 Helops, as appears from Pliny, who makes it fyno- 

 nimous with the acipenfer*, and from another line 

 of the poet beforementioned : 



Et pretiofus Helops nofiris inccgnitus undis. 

 The pretious Helops flranger to our feas. 



A- 



The fturgeon annually afcends our rivers, but in Migk 

 no great numbers, and is taken by accident in the 



* Quidam eum Ehpem vocant. Lib. IX. c, 17. 



falmon 



