Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic - John Matthews - Страница 31

In the 16th and 17th century, explorers sailing the northern seas gave this name to a giant fish whose scales were on backwards, opening towards the front instead of the rear. This caused it to swim much more slowly than other fish; yet it was so vast that no one seems to have attempted to capture one. Stories of this kind almost always seem to arise from sightings of whales or, in this case, possibly giant sturgeon, the fish from which caviar is extracted.