BOOK IX.] History of Nature. 135 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 Of the Mullus, and Coracinus, Salpa, and Salmon. 



LICINIUS MUTIANUS reporteth, that in the Red Sea a 

 Mullet was taken that weighed fourscore Pounds. What a 

 Price would he have brought in our Luxury if he had been 

 taken upon our Coasts near the City! Also this is the 

 Nature of Fish, that some obtain the Pre-eminency in one 

 Place, and some in another : as the Coracinus in Egypt : 

 at Gades, the Zeus, 1 which is also called Faber : about 

 Ebusus the Salpa, 2 which in other Places is counted base, 

 and which nowhere else are they able to cook unless it is 

 first well beaten with a Cudgel. In Aquitania the River 

 Salmon s is preferred to all Sea-fishes. 



Of Fish, some have many Gills : some have them simple, 

 others double. At these Gills they discharge the Water 

 they take in at the Mouth. Hardness of the Scales is a 

 Mark that the Fish is old ; and yet all Fishes have not 

 Scales alike. There are two Lakes in Italy, at the Foot of 

 the Alps, named Larius and Verbanus,* in which there are 

 Fishes that every Year at the rising of the Stars Virgiliae, 

 have their Scales remarkable for the Thickness and the 

 Sharpness of their Points ; much like the Nails (or Tongues) 

 of the military Boots ; and never longer than about that 

 Month do they appear. 



1 Zeus faber. LINN. Wern. Club. 



5 Sparus salpa. LINN. Boops salpa. Cuv. Wern. Club. 



3 Salmosalar. LINN. Wern. Club. 



* Larius and Verbanus: now known as Lakes Major and Como. The 

 fish mentioned is the Cyprianus of Rondeletius : Cyprinus clavatus, sive 

 Pigus, of Ray's " Syn. Pis.," p. 115, a local variety of the common Carp : 

 Cyprinus carpio. Wern. Club. 



