All male fishes are supplied with milt, excepting the eel: with
the eel, the male is devoid of milt, and the female of spawn. The
mullet goes up from the sea to marshes and rivers; the eels, on the
contrary, make their way down from the marshes and rivers to the sea.
15
The great majority of fish, then, as has been stated, proceed from
eggs. However, there are some fish that proceed from mud and sand,
even of those kinds that proceed also from pairing and the egg. This
occurs in ponds here and there, and especially in a pond in the
neighbourhood of Cnidos. This pond, it is said, at one time ran dry
about the rising of the Dogstar, and the mud had all dried up; at
the first fall of the rains there was a show of water in the pond, and
on the first appearance of the water shoals of tiny fish were found in
the pond. The fish in question was a kind of mullet, one which does
not proceed from normal pairing, about the size of a small sprat,
and not one of these fishes was provided with either spawn or milt.
There are found also in Asia Minor, in rivers not communicating with
the sea, little fishes like whitebait, differing from the small fry
found near Cnidos but found under similar circumstances.
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