238 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



Agricola also gives the dimensionSj and furnishes further 

 details of two very distinct species of these burrowing 

 fish, one shaped like an eel and scaleless, the other some- 

 what resembling a gudgeon in form and scaly, both of 

 which, he says, are dug up in divers places abundantly, 

 and furnish a poor, sorry fare to the countryfolk who 

 disinter them ; he adds that they not unfrequently pene- 

 trate far through the earth, and bore their way generally 

 from some neighbouring stream^ into deep caves and wine- 

 cellars ; though at other times they are exhumed in parts 

 sufficiently remote from all running water to make their 

 gite or genesis equally hopeless problems. Both authors 

 concur in the belief that these fish live only whilst they 

 are buried, and die (unless the necessary precautions be 

 taken) on removal from the tomb : with proper care 

 however they may, it seems, be kept, like carp or perch, 

 a long while alive ; indeed, they relate that certain che- 

 mists who exhibit these creatures to curious customers, 

 as snakes, feed them for six months or more, suspended in 

 glass globes, during which they not only live, but thrive 

 and grow. Other authors may be cited in accordance 

 with these last. Near Sefton (Lancashire), writes Cam- 

 den, ' the little river Alt runs into the sea, where, in the 

 mossy groimds about Formby, they cut out turves which 

 serve the inhabitants both for fire and candle. Under 

 the turf there lies a blackish dead water, which has a 

 kind of oily fat substance floating upon it, and little 

 fishes swimming in it, which are taken by the diggers : 

 so that we may say w^e have fish dug out of the ground 

 in England, as well as they have about Heraclea in Pon- 

 tus. Nor is this strange,^ he continues, ' since in watery 

 places of this nature, the fish following the water, often 

 swim under ground; and so men are forced to fish for 

 them with spades.^ That of Seneca was pleasantly said, 

 ' what reason is there why fish should not travel on land, 

 if we traverse the sea?' But a very recent account of 



