388 PLIBT's NATrEAL HISTOET. [Book IX 



Europe from Asia, there is, near Chalcedon, on the Asiatic 

 side, a rock of remarkable whiteness; the whole of which caa 

 be seen from the bottom of the sea at the surface. Alarmed 

 at the sudden appearance of this rock, the tunnies always 

 hasten in great numbers, and with headlong impetuosity, to- 

 wards the promontory of Byzantium, which stands exactly 

 opposite to it, and from this circumstance has received the 

 name of the Golden Hom/^ Hence it is, that all the fishing 

 is at Byzantium, to the great loss of Chalcedon,*" although it 

 is only separated from it by a channel a mile in width. They 

 wait, however, for the blowing of the north wind to leave the 

 Euxine with a favourable tide, and are 'never taken until 

 they have entered the harbour of Byzantium. These fish do 

 not move about in winter;"^ in whatever place they,may hap- 

 pen to be surprised by it, there they pass the winter, tiU the 

 time of the equinox. 



Manifesting a wonderful degree of delight, they will often 

 accompany a vessel in full sail, and may be seen from the 

 poop following it for hours, and a distance of several miles. 

 If a fish-spear even is thrown at them ever so many times, 

 they are not in the slightest degree alarmed at it. Some 

 writers call the tunnies which follow ships in this manner, by 

 the name ,of " ^ompili.'"' 



Many fishes pass the summer in the Propontis, and do not 

 enter the Euxine ; such, for instance, as the sole,^* while on 



=" Called " chrysoceras," in B. It. c. 18, that being the Greek name for 

 " "olden horn." He means, that in consequence of the lucrative nature of 

 this fishery, it thence obtained the name of the "golden" horn. Dale- 

 champs is of opinion that some person has here substituted the Latin 

 " Aurei comus," for the Greek name Chrysoceras. 



'2 Hence, according to Strabo, Chalcedon obtained the name of the 

 " City of the BUnd," the people having neglected to choose the opposite 

 shore for the site of their city. " Still, however, a kind of pelamis, or young 

 tunny, from this place, had the name of " Chalcedonia," and is spoken 

 of as a most exquisite dainty by Aulus Gellius, B. vii. c. 16. 



=' Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16;.^lian, Hist. Anim. B. is. ; and 

 Plutarch, in his Treatise on the Instincts of Animals, state to a similar 

 effect. 



^ Cnvier remarks that the " pompilos" of the ancients, which accompanied 

 ships and left them on nearing the land, was the pilot-fish of the modems, 

 the Gasterosteus ductor of Linnaeus. He thinks, however, that the name 

 Biav have alSo been given to other fish as well, of similar habits. 



» Pleuronectes solea of Linnaeus. 



