240 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



exist alivCj entombed in sand, oozej or mirej the question 

 may well be put, why, with such notorious facts before 

 us, should we, rejecting testimony above suspicion, refuse 

 to believe that they may also live underground ? Here, 

 no doubt, their origin is obscure, especially in cases where 

 no overflowing of a river in the vicinity can have carried 

 fecundated spawn to be subsequently hatched sub dio . 

 yet even here the mystery is not greater (nor on that 

 account to be gainsaid) than the origin of those scaly 

 creatures which regularly make their appearance after 

 the rainy season* in the East, converting the arid cis- 



many perch, were found. After the pond was thought to be quite 

 free, under some roots there seemed to be an animal, which was 

 conjectured to be an otter. The place was surrounded, and on 

 oponirig an entrance among the roots, a tench was found, of most 

 singular form, having hteraUy assumed the shape of the hole in 

 which, of course, he had been for many years confined. He 

 weighed eleven pounds nine ounces ; his colour was singular, his 

 belly being that of ochre or vermilion. This extraordinary fish, 

 after having been inspected by many gentlemen, was oareftdly 

 put into a pond, and at the time the account was written, twelve 

 months afterwards, was alive and well.' 



* Phaniaa says that it rained fish for three days in Chersone- 

 sus, — Phylarchus, that showers of fish, wheat, and frogs, were 

 not unusual. Heraolides of Lemnos speaks of a ranary rain 

 (the basis of which seems founded on one of the plagues of Egypt) 

 which fell in such cataracts from the sky in Pseonia and Dardania, 

 that they filled alike the public streets and private dwelling-houses : 

 the first day the inhabitants bore the plague as they might, kill- 

 ing the croakers as fast as they could, and carefully shutting them 

 out-of-doors : but when the rain ceased, and the frogs no longer 

 fell, they then began to multiply and increase, till every place 

 swarmed and was covered with them : all the beds were filled with 

 frogs, which also squatted on the chairs, and sprawled upon all the 

 settees and sofas. At table, boiled frogs were found in the tureen 

 and stewed frogs under the covers of the side-dishes, whilst frogs, 

 scalded or lame, limped and leapt across the dishes into every- 

 body's lap. The inhabitants bore all this with fortitude and re- 

 signation for some time, tiU at length, finding they could not put 

 foot to the ground without treading upon, nor bit into their 



