2 1 6 Gleanings from the 



which refembles the popular ftories of mowers 

 of frogs or fiih, is alluded to in the following 

 words on the fifh called aphye : " They are 

 produced in fhady and marihy places when, after a 

 period of fine weather, the earth has taken in 

 much warmth, as is the cafe about Salamis and 

 Marathon. In fuch places, then, the apbrus is 

 produced in funny weather. In fome places alfo it 

 is born, whenever much rain has fallen from the fky, 

 in the foam (apbrus) which floats on the furface of 

 the rain-water ; and fometimes," he goes on to ftate, 

 " it fprings from the foam on the furface of the 

 fea." Here, probably, for the fake of etymology, he 

 identifies the aphye (a-Qvw) and the aphrus (foam). 

 Endlefs fables are told about the generation of 

 eels at the prefent day. They find their prototype 

 in the firft natural hiftorian. This kind of fifh, 

 too, he fays, is not born from eggs or the ordinary 

 generation of fifties ; and it is clear that this is fo 

 from the fact that, when marfhes have been drained 

 and the mud fuffered to harden, eels have appeared 

 with the firft mower ; "but in droughts and Jakes 

 always full of water they are not generated, for 

 they both Jive and are fprung from the water of 

 mowers." Nor do they fpring from worms, as 

 fome think, " but from what are called the vitals 

 of the earth, which of their own accord acquire 

 confiftency in the mud and damp ground." And 

 they are generated wherever there may be putre- 

 faction in the fea and rivers in the fea where the 

 feaweed is thick, and round the edges of lakes 

 and rivers, for there the heat prevails moft to 



