Besides, a great number of fishes, such as the bonito and the
mullet, swim up the rivers and thrive in the rivers and marshes. The
sea-gudgeon also fattens in the rivers, and, as a rule, countries
abounding in lagoons furnish unusually excellent fish. While most
fishes, then, are benefited by rain, they are chiefly benefited by
summer rain; or we may state the case thus, that rain is good for
fishes in spring, summer, and autumn, and fine dry weather in
winter. As a general rule what is good for men is good for fishes
also.
Fishes do not thrive in cold places, and those fishes suffer
most in severe winters that have a stone in their head, as the
chromis, the basse, the sciaena, and the braize; for owing to the
stone they get frozen with the cold, and are thrown up on shore.
Whilst rain is wholesome for most fishes, it is, on the
contrary, unwholesome for the mullet, the cephalus, and the
so-called marinus, for rain superinduces blindness in most of these
fishes, and all the more rapidly if the rainfall be superabundant. The
cephalus is peculiarly subject to this malady in severe winters; their
eyes grow white, and when caught they are in poor condition, and
eventually the disease kills them.
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