zr Natural Magick , r.

iher was there ever seen in any os them,any passage fit to be a womb.They have bredoti-urnes in certain muddy pools, even after all the water and mud hath been gone;only by rain-water: neither indeed do they ever breed without rain, though theyhave never so much water otherwile ; for it is the rain, both that begets and nou-rishes them, as Aristotle writes.. They are also generated of putrified things. Ex-perience hath proved, that » dead horse thrown into a standing pool, hath broughtforth great store of Eeles; and the like hath been done by the carcases of othercreatures, Aristotle faith, they are generated of the garbage of the earth, which helaith,arifeth in the Sea, in Rivers,and in pools,by reaion chiefly ofputrefacticn;butit ariies in the Sea by reason of reeds; in Pools and Rivers, it arises by the banks-side, foe there the heat is more forcible to cause putrefaction. And a friend of minefilled certain wooden vessels with water,and Reeds, and some other water-herbs,and set them in the open Air, having first covered them with a weighty stone, and loin short time generated Eeles. Such is the generation of

Groundlings, out of some and froths

which fifli the Greeks call Aphya, because rain breeds it. Many of them breed ofthe some that riles out of the sandy Chanel, that still goes and comes at all times,till at last it is dissolved ; so that this kind offish breeds all times of the year, in sha-dowy and warm places, when the l’oyl is heated ; as in Attica, neer to Salamnia,and in Marathon, where 'shemistocles got hisfameus victory. In some places, thisfish breeds of feme by thehelpof the rain ; and swims on the top of the water inthe some, as you fee little wormes creep on the top of mud. Athenam faith, Thisfish is consecrated to Venus , because she also comes of the froth of the Sea,whence(he is called Aphrodites. tAElianus faith, These fishes neither do beget, nor are be-gotten, bnt only come of mud: for when dirt is clotted together in the Sea, icwaxes very black and slimy, and then receives heat and life after a wonderful man-ner, and so is changed into very many living,Creatures, and namely into Ground-lings. When the waves are too boistrousfor him,he hides himself in the ciift offemerock; neither doth he need any food. And Oppiatw makes the very fame descri-ption of them, and of their generation. There is a kind of these fishes, called aMullet-Groundiing, which is generated of mud and of sand, as fiath been triedin many marifh places, amongst the rest in Gindus ; wherein the Dog-daies, theLakes being dried up, so that the mud was hard; as scon as ever they began to befull of rain-water again, were generated little fishes, a kind of Mullets, aboutthe bigness of little Cackrels, which had neither feed nor egge in them. And insome parts of Asia, at the mouth of the Rivers into the Sea,some of a bigger size aregenerated. And as.the Mullet-groundling comes of mud, or of a sandy lome, asAristotle writes; so it is to be thought, that the Cackrcl-groundling comes thereofalso. It seems too, that

A ('arpe u generated ef putrefaUion ,

Especially of the putrified mud of sweet water: for it is experienced, that in cer-tain Lakes,compacted about with Hills,where there is no Well,nor River,to moistenit, but only the rain, after some few showers, there hath been great store of fish,especially Carps: but there are some of this kind generated by copulation. Thereare also in certain particular Lakes, particular kinds of fishes, as in the Lemane, andthe Benacian Lakes, there be divers kind of Carpcs, and other such fishes. Likewisethere are certain

Earthly fishes generated of putrefatfiou •

Tlinj reports, that in Paphlagonia, they dig cut of deep ditches, certain earthlyfishes very good to be eaten • and it is so in places where there is no standing wa-ter; and he wonders that they should be generated without copulation : but sure-