BOOK IX. Lxxvi. 166-LXXIX. 169 



LXXVI. The homfish or garfish is the only fish 

 so prolific that its matrix is ruptured when it spawns ; 

 after spawning the wouad grows together, which is 

 said to happen in the case of blindworms also. The 

 sea-mouse digs a trench in the ground to lay its eggs 

 in and covers it again with earth, and a month later 

 digs the earth up again and opens the trench and 

 leads its brood into the water. 



LXXVII. The red mullet and the sea-perch « are 

 said to have wombs. The species called by the Greeks 

 hoop-fish * is said to practise self-impregnation. The 

 offspring of all aquatic animals are blind at birth. 



LXXVIII. There has recently been sent to us a iMngevUy i>i 

 remarkable case of longe\ity in fishes. In Campania ■^■'''* 

 not far from Naples, there is a country house named 

 Posilipo <^ ; Annaeus Seneca writes that in Caesar's 

 fishponds on this property a fish thrown in by Polio 

 Vedius had died after reaching the age of 60, while 

 two others of the same breed that were of the same 

 age were even then hving. The mention of fishponds 

 reminds me to say a Httle more on this topic before 

 leaving the subject of aquatic animals. 



LXXIX. Oyster ponds were first invented by ^^^^(^^^ 

 Sergius Orata on the Gulf of Baiae, in the time of 

 the orator Lucius Crassus, before the Marsian war <* ; 

 his motive was not greed but avarice, and he made a 

 great profit out of his practical ingenuity, as he was 

 the first inventor of showerbaths — he used to fit out 

 country houses in this way and then sell them. He 

 was the first to adjudge the best flavour to Lucrine 

 oysters — because the same kinds of fish are of better 

 quaUty in different places, for example wolf-fish in the 

 Tiber between the two bridges *, turbot at Ravenna, 

 lamprey in Sicily, sturgeon at Rhodes, and other kinds 



voL. m. K 277 



