The power of the skin to expand seems the only limitation of their size and weight, for they take on fat till they burst.[239] No wonder that for beasts of such dimensions the Celtæ used great iron hooks,[240] which elsewhere were double.[241] But their devices met defeat by these “Fat” (if not somnolent) “Boys” of the Sea, for _teste_ Oppian, “Oft on the Spikes that arm the indented Chine Rolling averse they sawed the trembling Line.” The Tuna of the Canadian and Californian coasts run very heavy: one of the former caught on _a Rod and Line_ weighed 707 lbs. FOOTNOTES: [194] Translated by C. A. Elton. In the last two lines occurs the solitary mention by Hesiod of fishing. [195] From the fish (in old English _daulphin_) came apparently the title of the eldest son of the kings of France from 1349 to 1830. According to Littré the name Dauphin, borne by the lords of the Viennois, was the proper name _Delphinus_ (the same word as the name of the fish), whence the province subject to them was called _Dauphiné_. Humbert III., on ceding the province, made it a condition that the title should be perpetuated by being borne by the eldest son of the French king. A. Brachet, _An Etymological Dict. of the French Language^3_ (Oxford, 1883), p. 113, states that the title—peculiar to S. France—first appears in 1140: “the origin is obscure, though it certainly represents the _Delphinus_.” [196] Lucian (_Dialogues of the Sea Gods_, VIII.) offers an unexpected explanation of this trait. On Poseidon’s commending the fish for the rescue of Arion, the Dolphin makes answer: “You need not be surprised to find us doing a good turn to Man: _we were men before we were fishes_.” [197] Pindar (_frag._ 235 Bergk^4, 140^b, 68 ff., Schroeder) likens himself to the dolphin, “Which flutes’ beloved sound Excites to play Upon the calm and placid sea.” Pliny (Delphin edition, 1826, which I use throughout), IX. 8. Suetonius, _Nero_ 41. [198] Herodotus, I. 24. Pausanias, III. 25. Plutarch, _Sept. Sap. Conviv._, 18. Cf. Lucian’s characteristic account, _op. cit._, VIII. [199] S. Baring-Gould, _The Lives of the Saints_ (London, 1897), vol. x. 385. [200] Keller, _op. cit._, 347, confirms this habit of the fish, which, I suggest, is dictated by reason of food. [201] Oppian, _hab._ V. 425 ff.; Pliny, IX. 9; Ælian, _de nat. an._, II. 8. [202] The Mugil, especially Mugil _saltator_, vies with if it do not surpass the salmon in its power of leaping. It often (according to Oppian) jumps right over the surrounding nets. Our Dolphin a double duty pays, in (1) driving the fish, and (2) killing the successful _saltatores_. [203] In Arist., _N. H._, IX. 48, the Dolphin “seems to be the swiftest of all the _creatures_, marine or terrestrial,” but in _N. H._, IX. 37, he credits the grey mullet as being “the swiftest of _fishes_.”