398 
Pliny's natueal histoey. 
[Book IX. 
a male, being taken from out of the preserves, is fastened to a 
long line, which is passed through his mouth and gills ; he is 
then let go in the sea, after which he is drawn back again by 
the line, upon which the females will follow him to the very 
water's edge ; and so, on the other hand, the male will follow 
the female, during the spawning season. 
CHAP. 27. THE ACIPEXSER. 
Among the ancients, the acipenser^ was esteemed the most 
^ Cuvier says, that the pecuHarity in the scales here mentioned is not 
found in any fish ; but that the sturgeon genus has, in place of scales, 
laminae disposed in longitudinal lines in such a way, that the one does 
not lap over the other, as is the case with fish in general. It was 
this fact, misstated probably, that gave rise to the story ; and it is most 
likely this that has led Rondelet, and most of the modern naturalists, to 
look upon the acipenser as the common sturgeon, and to give that name 
to the sturgeon genus. Athenaeus reckons it among the cartilaginous 
fishes, and in the family of the squali ; but Pliny here speaks of it as very 
rare, and Martial and Cicero say the same, which cannot be so accurately 
said of the sturgeon. Archestratus, in Athenaeus, speaks of it as small, 
having a sharp-pointed muzzle, and of triangular shape, and tells us that 
a very inferior one was valued at 1000 Attic drachmae. The sturgeon, on 
the other hand, is often ten or twelve feet in length. The acipenser was 
not always in vogue with the Romans, but when it was, it was most highly 
esteemed ; and according to Athenaeus, E. vii., and Sammonicus Severus, 
as quoted by Macrobius, B. ii. c. 12, it was brought to table by servants 
crowned with flowers and preceded by a piper. All these circumstances 
lead Cuvier to be of opinion that under this name is meant a kind of small 
sturgeon with a sharp muzzle, greatly esteemed by the Russians, and by 
them known as the sterlet, the Acipenser Ruthenus of Linnaeus, the Aci- 
penser Pygmaeus of Pallas. It is found in the Black Sea, and in the 
rivers that fall into it ; and has been carried with success to Lake Ladoga, 
as also Lake Meier, in Sweden. This is the smallest and most delicate of 
the sturgeon genus, and Professor Pallas says that they are s'old at St. 
Petersburgh at "insane prices," when more than two feet in length. It 
is not improbable that it was found in the rivers of Asia Minor, and thence 
carried to Rome occasionally. Pliny, indeed, B. xxxiii. c. 11, says that it 
is not a stranger to Italy ; if so, it would seem to be difi'erent from the 
" elops," of which Ovid says, Halieut. 1. 96, and the precious elops, 
unknown in our waters," though he also says of the " acipenser,'* in 1. 
132, "and thou, acipenser, famed in distant waters." Still, however, 
Cuvier says, the use of names was not so accurate among the ancients, but 
what that of " acipenser" may have been given to the sturgeon in general ; 
and this may have given rise to the present assertions of Pliny. Oppian, 
in Athenfcus, B. vii., says, like Pliny, that the elops was the same as the 
acipenser, and we find no characteristics given of the elops to make us 
