296 PEOSE HAIilEUTICS. 



fish, according to Plutarch, comes up from the sea, we 

 need look no further, to be convinced that this particu- 

 lar oxyrhyiichus calnnot be the esox of modern anglers' 

 guides, which will not live in salt water ; while if any 

 additional objection against the identity of the two were 

 necessary, the very name (though it has led to an op- 

 posite inference) ought to be conclusive ; for with what 

 plausibUity can the broad patulous anserine mouth- 

 piece of the pike be assimilated with the sharp-pointed 

 form of beak so clearly designated by the word o^vppvy- 

 ^o?.* This terror of the modern duck-pond seems to 

 have been as little known at Rome as he was at Athens. 

 Pliny's esox (a name which modern ichthyology has im- 

 posed upon the pike) is evidently a misnomer, for the 

 Roman naturalist only mentions it cursorily as a river- 

 fish, and as attaining the weight of a thousand pounds. 

 Now the mere fact that both esox and pike are river-fish 

 win scarcely, we imagine, be held a sufficient reason by the 

 prudent for identifying the two ; and as regards size, 

 whenever a pike weighing a thousand pounds shall have 

 been taken out of any river or lake, it will be time to 

 consider what weight should attach to an opinion at pre- 

 sent wholly unsupported. 



The first appearance of Sir Lucius in poetry or prose 

 is, we believe, in the fourth century, when the Uttle- 

 known ' French abbe,' t but weU-loiown Latin poet, Au- 

 sonius, ushers him into no very favourable notice under 

 this now familiar name. 



The wary luce, midst wrack and rushes Md, 

 The scourge and terror of the scaly brood, 



* .^lian designates four very different fish under this common 

 name ; one of them, which ' inhabits the Caspian, and is carried, 

 salted, on camels' backs to Ecbatana,' is no doubt the sturgeon. 



t Buffon. 



