Clais 1V, Stee ap, 297 
equally negligent in refpect to his A/aufa: all he tells 
us is, that it was a very bad fifh: 
Stridente/que focis obfonia plebis ALAusas. 
Alaufe crackling on the embers are 
Of wretched poverty, th’infipid fare, 
_ But commentators have agreed to rendet the 
Ogicce of the firft, and the Alau/a of the laft, by 
the word Shad. Perhaps they were directed by the 
authority. of Strabo, who mentions the @gicce the 
fuppofed Shad, and the Kergevs, or Mullet, as fith that 
-afcend the Nile at certain feafons, which, with the 
Dolphin® of that river, he fays, are the only kinds 
that venture up from the fea for fear of the croco- 
dile. ‘That the two firft are fifh of paffage in the 
Nile, is confirmed to us by Belonius**, and by 
Haffelquift--. ‘The laft fays it is found in the Medi- 
terranean near Smyrna, and on the coaft of Aeyot, 
neat Rofeifo, and that in the months of December 
and Yanuary it afcends the Nile, as high as Cairo : 
that it is ftuffed with pot marjoram, and when dreffed 
in that manner will very nearly intoxicate the eater. 
In Great Britain the Severn affords this fith in 
higher perfection than any other river. It makes its 
firft appearance there in May, but in very warm fea- 
fons in April for its arrival, fooner or later, dei 
pends much on the temper of the air. It continues 
* This is the Dolphin of the Nile, a fith now unknown to 
us. Pliny id. viii. c. 25. fays, it had a fharp fin on its back, 
with which it deftroyed the crocodile, by thrufting it into the 
belly of that animal, the only penetrable place. 
** Belon. ‘tin. 98. 
+P. 385. 388. Suedi/fp edition. 
- Urs in 
