Class IV. S T U R G E O N. 125 



in fpring or fummer, but in vaft quantities in au- 

 tumn and winter, when they crowd from the fea 

 under the ice, and are then taken in great numbers. 

 Whether the acipenfer is the fturgeon of the 

 moderns, may be doubted, otherwife Ovid would 

 never have fpoke of it as a foreign fifh : 



^uque peregrinis,. Acipenfer, 7iohilis undis. 

 And, thou, a fiHi in foreign feas renowned. 



It being well known that it is Hot uncommon 

 in the Mediterranean^ and even in the mouth of 

 the "Tiher^ at certain feafons; but this palTage leaves 

 us as much in the dark as to the particular fpe- 

 cies intended, by the ward acipenfer^ as the de- 

 fcription Fliny has given us ^ for that philofopher 

 relates, that its fcales are placed in a contrary direc- 

 tion to thofe of other fifh, being turned towards the 

 mouth, which difagrees with the character of all 

 that are known at prefent. Whatever fifh it might 

 be, it was certainly the fame with the Elops^ of 

 Helops\ as appears from Pli7i)\ who makes it fyno- 

 nim.ous with the acipenfer^, and from another line 

 of the poet beforementioned : 



Et preticfus Helops nojiris incognitus undis. 

 The pretious Helops ftranger to our feas. 



- The fturgeon annually afcends our rivers, but in Migra- 

 «o great numberSj and is taken by accident in the tory. 



* Quidam eum Ekpem vocant, Lih. IX. c. 17. 



falmon 



