[244] _The Natural History_ (of which the text I use is Bekker’s) is practically the only work by Aristotle discussed here. For me, being no “Clerk” although “of Oxenford,” it is not, as— “For him was lever have, at his beddes heed, Twenty bokes, clad in black or reed, Of Aristotle and his philosophye, Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye.” [245] _Aristotle’s Researches in Natural Science_, by Thomas E. Lones (1912), from whose book I borrow and to whose kind advice I owe much. At last we have a really admirable translation of _Hist. Anim._, which is by Prof. D’Arcy Thompson, Oxford, 1910. The notes are those of an expert zoologist, thoroughly familiar with classical literature. [246] _Select Works_, vol. i. p. 69. London, 1798-1801. [247] “Die Altersbestimmung des Karpfen an seiner Schuppe,” in the _R. Jahresber. des Schlesischen Fischerei-Vereins für 1899_. [248] “The periodic growth of Scales in Gadidæ and Pleuronectidæ as an Index of Age,” in the _Journal of the Marine Biolog. Assoc._ (1900-03), VI. 373-375. [249] _Reports of Scottish Fishery Board_, 1904, 1906, 1907. [250] Cf. _Anim. Gen._, V. 3. [251] δῆλοι δ’ oἱ γέροντες αὐτῶν τῷ μεγέθει τῶν λεπἰδων καἰ τῇ σκληρότητι. Professor D’Arcy Thompson, in his translation, renders this sentence “the age of a scaly fish may be told by the size and hardness of the scales.” It is most probable, though not a certainty, from contextual reasons, from Aristotle’s habit of casually harking back, and from Pliny in his translation of it (_N. H._, IX. 33) applying it _generally_, that this sentence applies to all fish, and not solely to the Tunny. [252] V. 15. ἡ γὰρ πορφύρα περὶ ἔτη ἕξ, καὶ καθ’ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν φανερά ἐστιν ἡ αὔξησις τοῖς διαστήμασι τοῖς ἐν τῷ ὀστράκῳ τῆς ἕλικος. The translation above is taken from Professor D’Arcy Thompson (_ibid._), to whose kindness I owe the following reference and much else in this chapter. Pliny, IX. 60, makes the _Murex_ live _seven_ years. [253] In _Epistolæ physiologicæ_ (Delft, 1719), IV. p. 401, he describes how the _squamulæ_ or scalelets of a herring (twelve years old) were found regularly superimposed, each year’s growth on that of the preceding year. [254] Athenæus, referring, however, solely to the _Murex_, “their growth is shown by the rings on their scales,” is simply quoting from Aristotle (as Dindorf’s text makes plain), whose term of six years he adopts: φανερὰ δὲ τ’αὔξησις ἐκ τῆς ἐν τῷ ὀστράκωι ἕλικος (III. 37). [255] Plin., _Nat. Hist._, VIII. 17; Athen., _Deipn._, IX. 58; Æl., _Var. Hist._, IV. 19.