THE ORDER CETACEA. 177 



and historians than the dolphin. From the earliest ages 

 he was considered as consecrated to the gods, and 

 honoured as the benefactor of man. Pliny, iElian, and 

 other ancient authors, speak highly of his attachment to 

 mankind. The younger Pliny has written a charming 

 story of the love of a dolphin for Hippus;* and Ovid 

 relates, with all the beauties of poetry, the stoiy of the 

 musician Arion, who, being pursued and thrown into the 

 sea, was rescued and saved by this kind animal. He 

 thus observes : — 



" But (past belief) a dolphin's arched back 

 Preserved Arion from his destined wreck ! 

 Secure he sits, and with harmonious strains 

 Requites his bearer for his friendly pains. 

 The gods approve ; the dolphin heaven adorns, 

 And with nine stars a constellation forms." 



Ovid. Fasti, lib. ii. 117. 



But after all these fabulous accounts of the dolphin by 

 the ancients, and the presages drawn by modern seamen 

 from their movements, it does not appear that this 

 animal is endowed with more sagacity than the other 

 species of the Cetacea, or that it discovers greater 

 attachment to man. To relate what has been said on 

 this subject would far exceed my limits, and to no useful 

 purpose, inasmuch as such of my readers as may feel 

 inclined for a fuller examination will find it by referring 

 to Pliny's Natural History, or to the writings of Athe- 

 nteus and ^Elian. 



At present the dolphin is scarcely sought after as an 

 object of traffic. Some centuries ago, however, its flesh 

 was reckoned such a delicacy that we are informed, by 

 Dr. Caius,f that one which was captured in his time 

 was deemed worthy of being presented to the Duke of 



* Plin. Epist. lib. ix. ep. 33. t The founder of Caius College, Cambridge. 



N 



