HALIEUTICA, IV. 489-513 



man might gather of them ^'^^th his hands as if he 

 gathered deep sand. Now when the fishermen behold 

 them huddled together, they gladly enclose them 

 with their hollow seine-nets and without trouble bring 

 ashore abundant booty and fill with the Fry all their 

 vessels and their boats and on the deep beaches pile 

 up heaps, an infinite abundance of spoil. As when 

 the harvesters have finished the work of Deo" and with 

 help of the winds and the landsman's oars ^ have 

 separated the grain, they pile it abundant in the 

 mid space of the round threshing-floor and, full every- 

 where to overflowing, the ring that receives the 

 wheat shows white within the floor : even so then, 

 filled with the infinite Fry, the brow of the beach 

 beside the sea shows white. 



The tribes of the Pelamyds " are by birth from the 

 Euxine sea and are the offspring of the female Tunny. 

 For these gather bv the mouth of the Maeotian Lake** 

 where it meets the sea, and there amid the wet reed- 

 beds they bethink them of the painful travail of birth. 

 And such of their eggs as they find they eat as they 

 hurry along, but such as remain among the reeds and 

 rushes give birth in due season to the shoals of the 

 Pelamyds. These when first they skim the waves and 

 make essay of travelling hasten to voyage in alien 



Cf. Plin. ix. 47 Thynni . . . intrant e magno marl Pontum 

 verno tempore gregatim, nee alibi fetificant. Cordyia 

 appellatur partus qui fetas redeuntes in mare autumno 

 comitatur, limosae vere aut e luto pelamydes incipiunt vocari 

 et, cum annuum excessere tempus, tJi\ nni ; A. 598 a 26 

 Ovvvidei Se Kai irrjXa/jivdfS . . . et's tov Iloyroi' (/jL^dWovffL tov 

 iapos Kai depi(^ovaiv ; 571 a 11 doKoOci 5' iviavrQ elvai {ol di'vvoi) 

 Tpfff^iTfpoi tQiv Trr]\afjLv5uv. 



* The Sea of Azov : Matwns \inv7i Aesch. P. V. 419 ; Pains 

 Maeotica Plin. ii. 168 ; Maeotis lacus Plin. iv. 78 ; Maeotius 

 lacus Plin. iv. 76. 



441 



