Note 2280 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

Still known as the Lake of Lattes, in the department of Narbonne. Cuvier says that the mullet-fishing is still carried on in this lake, which is on the shores of Languedoc, and refers to D’Astruc’s Memoirs on the Natural History of that province. The dolphins, however, he says, no longer take part in the sport; and he observes that the same story is told by Ælian, B. ii. c. 8, and Albertus Magnus, De Anim. B. xxiv., with reference to other places. Oppian, in his Halieutica, B. v., makes Eubœa the scene of these adventures, while Albertus Magnus speaks of the shores of Italy. Rondelet, in his Book on Fishes, says that it used to take place on the coasts of Spain, near Palamos. Cuvier suggests, with Belon and D’Astruc, that the story arose from the fact that the dolphins, while pursuing the shoals of mullets, sometimes drove them into the creeks and salt-water lakes on the coast; a fact which has been sometimes found to cause the fish to be caught in greater abundance.