BOOK IX. XVII. 46-xix, 49 



same river that have a pair of gills measuring 90 ft. ; 

 they are deep blue in colour, and named " froni their 

 appearance ; he says that they are so strong that 

 they carry off elephants coming to drink by gripping 

 the trunk in their teeth. 



XVIII. Male tunnies have no fin under the belly. Tfutunnp. 

 In spring time they enter the Black Sea from the 

 Mediterranean in shoals, and they do not spawn 

 anywhere else. The name of cordyla is given to the 



fry, which accompany the fish when they return to 

 the sea in autumn after spawning ; in the spring 

 they begin to be called mudfish or pelamydes (from the 

 Greek* for ' mud '), and when they have exceeded the 

 period of one year they are called tunny. These fish 

 are cut up into parts, and the neck and belly are 

 counted a delicacy, and also the throat provided it 

 is fresh, and even then it causes severe flatulence; 

 all the rest of the tunny, with the flesh entire, 

 is presei*ved in salt : these pieces are called 

 vielandrya, as resembhng splinters of oak-wood. 

 The cheapest of them are the parts next the tail, 

 because they lack fat, and the parts most favoured 

 are those next the throat ; whereas in other fish the 

 parts round the tail are most in use.<^ At the 

 pelamys stage they are divided into choice sHces and 

 cut up small into a sort of Httle cube. 



XIX. Fishes of aH kinds grow up exceptionally Rapidgrotcth 

 fast, especially in the Black Sea ; this is due to the "^■'""^- 

 fresh water carried into it by a large number of rivers. 



The name of scomber is given to a fish whose growth in 

 size can be noticed daily. This fish and the pelamys 

 in company with the tunny enter the Black Sea in 

 shoals in seai*ch of less brackish feeding-grounds, each 

 kind with its own leaders, and first of all the mackerel, 



195 



