472 
pliny's natukal histoex. 
[Book IX. 
reason it is that eels also can live so long out of water ; and 
that their eggs come to maturity on dry land, like those of the 
sea- tortoise In the same regions also of the Euxine, he 
says, various kinds of fishes are overtaken by the ice, the gobio 
more particularly, and they only betray signs of life, by 
moving when they have warmth applied by the saucepan. 
All these things, however, though very remarkable, still admit 
of some explanation. He tells us also, that in Paphlagonia, 
land fishes are dug up that are most excellent eating ; these, he 
says, are found in deep holes or spots where there is no standing 
water whatever, and he expresses his surprise at their being 
thus produced without any contact with moisture, stating it as 
his opinion, that there is some innate virtue in these holes, 
similar to that of wells ; as if, indeed, fishes really were to be 
found in wells.^^ However this may be, these facts, at all 
events, render the life of the mole under ground less a matter 
for surprise ; unless, perhaps, these fishes mentioned by Theo- 
phrastus are similar in nature to the earth-worm. 
CHAP. 84. (58.) THE MICE OE THE NILE. 
But all these things, singular as they are, are rendered 
credible by a marvel which exceeds them all, at the time of the 
inundation of the Kile ; for, the moment that it subsides, little 
mice^^ are found, the first rudiments of which have been 
* Cuvier remarks, that many fish, the orifice of the gills of which, like 
those of the eel, is small, or which have in the interior of those parts 
organs proper for the preservation there of water, are ahle, like the eel, to ' 
live for some time on dry land ; such, for instance, as the periophthalmi 
previously mentioned, the chironectes, the ophicephali, the anabas, and 
others ; but it is difficult to say, he observes, of what species were those of 
the Lycus, which are here mentioned. 
^3 Or turtle. See c. 12 of the present Book, 
It is most probable that Sillig is right in his supposition, that 
quam" should be read " sequam otherwise it does not appear that any 
sense can be made of the passage. Schneider, in his commentaries upon 
Theophrastus, Sillig says, quite despaired of either amending or explaining 
this passage ; which, however, with Sillig's emendation is very easily to be 
understood. 
*5 In accordance with the opinion of Vossius and Sillig, we read here 
" in illis,'* instead of the common, and most probably incorrect, reading, 
" in nuUis." 
^ Pomponius Mela, B. i. c. 9., and Ovid, Met. B. i. 1. 422, et seq,^ tell 
the same story, which, however, has no truth in it whatever. 
