Note 13 — LETTER XV.
Reading edition
In a charter belonging to the monastery, granted by Henry IInd, in 1159, (see Neustria Pia, p. 323) he gives the convent, "integritatem aquæ ex parte terræ Monachorum, et Graspais, si fortè capiatur."--The word Graspais is explained by Ducange to be a corruption of crassus piscis. Noel (in his Essais sur le Département de la Seine Inférieure, II, p. 168) supposes that it refers particularly to porpoises, which he says are still found in such abundance in the Seine, nearer its mouth, that the river sometimes appears quite black with them.