260 THE LOG OF THE SUN 



poll wiggle. This last gives us the clew to our 

 spelling — pollwiggle, which, reversed and inter- 

 preted in a modern way, is wigglehead, a most 

 appropriate name for these lively little black fel- 

 lows. Tadpole is somewhat similar ; toad-pole, or 

 toad's-head, also very apt when we think of these 

 small-bodied larval forms. 



Salamander, which is a Greek word of Eastern 

 origin, was applied in the earliest times to a lizard 

 considered to have the power of extinguishing fire. 

 Newt has a strange history; originating in a 

 wrong division of two words, "an eivte," the lat- 

 ter being derived from eft, which is far more cor- 

 rect than newt, though in use now in only a few 

 places. Few fishermen have ever thought of the 

 interesting derivation of the names which they 

 know so well. Of course there are a host of fishes 

 named from a fancied resemblance to familiar 

 terrestrial animals or other things; such as the 

 catfish, and those named after the dog, hog, horse, 

 cow, trunk, devil, angel, sun, and moon. 



The word fish has passed through many varied 

 forms since it w T as piscis in the old Latin tongue, 

 and the same is true of shark and skate, which in 

 the same language were carcliarus and squatus. 

 Trout was originally tructa, which in turn is lost 

 in a very old Greek word, meaning eat or gnaw. 

 Perch harks back to the Latin perca, and the 

 Romans had it from the Greeks, among whom it 

 meant spotted. The Romans said minutus when 



