398 pliny's natueal history. [Book IX. 



a male, iDeing taken from out of the preserves, is fastened to a 

 long line, which is passed through his mouth and gills ; he is 

 then let go in the sea, after which he is drawn back again by 

 the line, upon which the females wiU follow him to the very 

 water's edge ; and so, on the other hand, the male will follow 

 the female, during the spawning season. 



CnAP. 27. THE ACIPEIS'SEE. 



Among the ancients, the acipenser^ was esteemed the most 



« Cuvier says, that the peculiarity in the scales here mentioned is not 

 found in any fish ; but that the sturgeon genus has, in place of scales, 

 laminae disposed in longitudinal lines in such a way, that the one does 

 not lap over the other, as is the case with fish in general. It was 

 this fact, misstated probably, that gave rise to the story ; and it is most 

 likely this that has led Rondelet, and most of the modern naturalists, to 

 look upon the acipenser as the common sturgeon, and to give that name 

 to the sturgeon genus. Athenaeus reckons it among the cartilaginous 

 fishes, and in the family of the squali ; but Pliny here speaks of it as very 

 rare, and Martial and Cicero say the same, which cannot be so accurately 

 said of the stiu'geon. Archestratus, in Athenaeus, speaks of it as small, 

 having a sharp-pointed muzzle, and of triangular shape, and tells us that 

 a very inferior one was valued at 1000 Attic drachmae. The sturgeon, on 

 the other hand, is often ten or twelve feet in length. The acipenser was 

 not always in vogue with the Romans, but when it was, it was most highly 

 esteemed ; and according to Athenaeus, B. vii., and Sammonicus Severus, 

 as quoted by Macrobius, B. ii. c. 12, it was brought to table by servants 

 crowned with flowers and preceded) by a piper. All these circumstances 

 lead Cuvier to be of opinion that under this name is meant a kind of small 

 sturgeon with a sharp muzzle, greatly esteemed by the Russians, and by 

 them known as the sterlet, the Acipenser Ruthenus of Linnaeus, the Aci- 

 penser Pygmteus of Pallas. It is found in the Black Sea, and in the 

 rivers that fall into it ; and has been carried with success to Lake Ladoga, 

 as also Lake Meier, in Sweden. This is the smallest and most delicate of 

 the sturgeon genus, and Professor Pallas says that they are sold at St. 

 Petersburgh at "insane prices," when more than two feet in length. It 

 is not improbable that it was found in the rivers of Asia Minor, and thence 

 carried to Rome occasionally. Pliny, indeed, B. xxxiii. c. 11, says that it 

 is not a stranger to Italy ; if so, it would seem to be difi'erent from the 

 " elops," of which Ovid says, Halieut. 1, 96, "and the precious elops, 

 unknown in our waters," though he also says of the "acipenser," in 1. 

 13'2, "and thou, acipenser, famed in distant waters." Still, however, 

 Cuvier says, the use of names was not so accurate among the ancients, but 

 what that of " acipenser" may have been given to the sturgeon in general ; 

 and this may have given rise to the present assertions of Pliny. Oppiato, 

 in Athenreus, B. vii., says, like Pliny, that the elops was the same as the 

 acipenser, and we find no characteristics given of the elops to make us 



