346 FISHES. [Cuar. X, 
propagate, leaving behind them their spawn, which be- 
comes vivified on the return of the waters to their ac- 
customed bed.” This work of Theophrastus became the 
great authority for all subsequent writers on this ques- 
tion. ATHENEUS quotes it}, and adds the further 
testimony of Potysius, that in Gallia Narbonensis fish 
are similarly dug out of the ground.? Srrazo repeats 
the story *, and the Greek naturalists one and all re- 
ceived the statement as founded on reliable authority. 
Not so the Romans. Livy mentions it as one of the 
prodigies which were to be “ expiated ” on the approach 
of a rupture with Macedon, that “in Gallico agro qua 
induceretur aratrum sub glebis pisces emersisse,” 4 thus 
taking it out of the category of natural occurrences. 
Pomponius Meta, obliged to notice the matter in his 
account of Narbon Gaul, accompanies it with the inti- 
mation that although asserted by both Greek and 
Roman authorities, the story was either a delusion or 
a fraud. Juvenau has a sneer for the rustic — 
“ miranti sub aratro 
Piscibus inventis.” — Sat. xiii. 63. 
And Srnzca, whilst he quotes Theophrastus, adds iron- 
ically, that now we must go to fish with a hatchet in- 
stead of a hook; “ non cum hamis, sed cum dolabra ire 
piscatum.” Puiny, who devotes the 35th chapter of 
his 9th book to this subject, uses the narrative of 
Theophrastus, but with obvious caution, and universally 
the Latin writers treated the story as a fable. 
In later times the subject received more enlightened 
attention, and Beckman, who in 1736 published his 
‘ Lib. viii. ch. 2. * Lib. iv. and xii. 
2 Tb. ch. 4. 4 Lib. xiii. ch. 2, 
