118 ALMS SHAD. 



Of the Trichaios, which is our Shad, Aristotle says, B. 8, C. 

 13, that it enters the River Ister, or the Danube, and then, 

 where this river divides into branches, it passes down into the 

 Adriatic Sea; and in proof of this his argument is, that it is 

 seen to enter the river, and is not known to come out of it 

 again; whereas in the Adriatic they are not known to enter, 

 but are caught as they come out. Aristotle could not have 

 been acquainted with the geography of the higher portion of 

 the Danube, and he may have given credit to the error 

 contained in the received accounts of the proceedings of the 

 Argonautic expedition; where instead of what really happened, 

 which evidently was, that in order to escape pursuit the ship 

 was conveyed across the Isthmus of Perecop, from the west side 

 of which the adventurers sailed along by the mouth of the 

 Danube into Greece, it was believed that they had gone up 

 that river, and by some other branch had passed down to the 

 Adriatic; a supposition which in somewhat later times gave rise 

 to the further absurdity of believing that Ulysses had gone from 

 Troy to the distant region of Italy, in his endeavour to reach 

 his home in a Greek Island. It is plain that this wanderer 

 had gone into the Black Sea in his endeavour to escape the 

 danger threatened to his fellow warriors; and it is there the 

 dangerous islands, from which the Argonauts had so narrow an 

 escape, were his Scylla and Charybdis, and another island was 

 the home of his Circe, where Medea had learnt her skill in 

 sorcery. But the Roman Pliny, in a later age, had become 

 acquainted with the geography of these regions; and therefore 

 while he copies the Natural History of the learned Greek, he 

 is compelled to add, that the passage of this fish from the 

 Danube to the Adriatic was by subterranean channels; for he 

 was aware that if accomplished at all it must be by a way not 

 known to observation. Indeed, it does not appear probable 

 that the Shad is at all accustomed to ascend to the higher part 

 of this river; since Dr. Reisinger, in his account of the fishes 

 of Hungary, does not mention this species as coming within 

 his knowledge. They avoid turbulent streams or rapid currents, 

 unless for a short way; but whether foul or clear is of small 

 consequence. 



It was also known to the Egyptians by ascending the Nile 

 from the sea, and it is common along the coasts of Europe up 



