Some fishes have numerous gills, others again single2433 ones, others double; it is by means of these that they discharge the water that has entered the mouth. A sign of old age2434 is the hardness of the scales, which are not alike in all. There are two lakes2435 of Italy at the foot of the Alps, called Larius and Verbanus, in which there are to be seen every year, at the rising of the Vergiliæ,2436 fish remarkable for the number of their scales, and the exceeding sharpness2437 of them, strongly resembling hob-nails2438 in appearance; these fish, however, are only to be seen during that month,2439 and no longer.
About This Book
The volume assembles an encyclopedic survey of the known world and its living inhabitants, moving from detailed regional geography and descriptions of seas, rivers, islands, and peoples to extended treatments of humanity, its generation, anatomy, and the origins and inventions of arts. Subsequent books catalog terrestrial animals—their habits, capture, and uses—followed by comprehensive observations on fish and marine creatures, their sizes and behaviors. Accounts mix naturalistic description, reported marvels, medicinal uses derived from animals, and travel and secondhand reports, organized as topical chapters intended as a practical compendium of natural and human phenomena.