Ossian Collection > Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland > Volume 4

NATURALIZATION OF FISH. 377
are six more species of that genus which do the same,
from choice. Of these, there are English names for four;
the Grey Salmon, the Sea Trout, the Gvviniad, and the
Smelt ; and the other two are, the Migratorius and the
Autumnalis: the former, an inhabitant of the Baikal, and
the latter, of the Frozen Ocean. Besides these, the
Conger and the Torsk enter rivers, for some unknown
purposes of their own : as do the Sprat, the Shad, the
Greater and the Lesser Lamprey, the Stickleback, and the
Cottus quadricornis. The Mullet spawns in the Mean-
der, and in all the other rivers of Asia Minor; where his
unlucky progeny, that was to have been, is taken and
made into Botargo. The Shad unquestionably spawns in
the Thames; or else the Lord Mayor and the Court of
Aldermen could not devour his infant family in the shape
of White bait, as they do, while the bony Parents are
left to Israel in St. Mary Axe. It is probable that the
Sprat does the same. That the Flounder, which is a sea
fish, resides, by choice, and permanently, in the same
river, is vulgarly known : and the Pleuronectes roseus,
another species, the English name of which I do not
know, is also taken in the Thames. The Cyclopterus Li-
paris and the Cypriiius Chalcoides, choose, similarly, to
leave the Caspian for the Wolga: and most people know
that the Caspian is a salt sea, and the Wolga a fresh
river. The Cyprinus Aphya inhabits, indifferently, the
shores of the sea, and the neighbouring rivers. The Del-
phinus Leucas, called the White Whale, chooses to ascend
the Hudson and other American rivers, even to the dis-
tance of a hundred miles, and much more, from the sea ;
partly for the purpose of controverting- the learned gen-
tlemen who cannot be taught any thing more, and partly
that he might make Hearue and Mackenzie believe that a
fresh-water river was the Polar Basin. The Foudre, I
know not that a French fish will condescend to accept of
an English name, visits the Seine.
Thus much for the opinions of Sea fish respecting
fresh waters. The sentiments of fresh-water fish about