388 
pltny's natural histobt. 
[Book IX. 
Europe from Asia, there is, near Chalcedon, on the Asiatic 
side, a rock of remarkable whiteness, the whole of which can 
be seen from the bottom of the sea at the surface. Alarmed 
at the sudden appearance of this rock, the tunnies always 
hasten in great numbers, and with headlong impetuosity, to- 
wards the promontory of Bj^zantium, which stands exactly 
opposite to it, and from this circumstance has received the 
name of the Golden Horn.^^ Hence it is, that all the fishing 
is at Eyzantium, to the great loss of Chalcedon, although it 
is only separated from it by a channel a mile in width. They 
wait, however, for the blowing of the north wind to leave the 
Euxine wdth a favourable tide, and are never taken until 
they have entered the harbour of Byzantium. These fish do 
not move about in winter in whatever place they may hap- 
pen to be surprised by it, there they pass the winter, till the 
time of the equinox. 
Manifesting a wonderful degree of delight, they will often 
accompany a vessel in full sail, and may be seen from the 
poop following it for hours, and a distance of several miles. 
If a fish-spear even is thrown at them ever so many times, 
they are not in the slightest degree alarmed at it. Some 
w^riters call the tunnies which follow ships in this manner, by 
the name of pompili."^* 
Many fishes pass the summer in the Propontis, and do not 
enter the Euxine ; such, for instance, as the sole,^^ while on 
51 Called chrysoceras," in B. iv. c. 18, that being the Greek name for 
" golden horn." He means, that in consequence of the lucrative nature of 
this fishery, it thence obtained the name of the " golden'' horn. Dale- 
champs is of opinion that some person has here substituted the Latin 
*' Aurei cornus," for the Greek name Chrysoceras. 
^2 Hence, according to Strabo, Chalcedon obtained the name of the 
" City of the Blind," the people having neglected to choose the opposite 
shore for the site of their city. Still, however, a kind of pelamis, or young 
tunny, from this place, had the name of Chalcedonia," and is spoken 
of as a most exquisite dainty by Aulus Gellius, B. vii. c. 16. 
S3 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16 ; ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. ; and 
Plutarch, in his Treatise on the Instincts of Animals, state to a similar 
effect. 
Cuvier remarks that the " pompilos*' of the ancients, which accompanied 
ships and left them on nearing the land, was the pilot-fish of the moderns, 
the Gasterosteus ductor of Linnaeus. He thinks, however, that the name 
may have also been given to other fish as well, of similar habits. 
Pleuronectes solea of Linnseus. 
