Note 616 — Chapter XVII
Reading edition
Pliny, IX. 23 and 74, and X. 87. In IX. 38 he asserts that Eels alone of all fish do not float when dead. Aristotle, who (N. H., VIII. 2) is, as usual, his authority, confines himself to noting this characteristic as not possessed “by the majority of fish,” and accounts for it by the smallness of stomach, lack of water in it, and want of fat; he states, however, that when fat they do float.