162 HAUPT— JONAH'S WHALE. [Apri 20, 



and the tiukes of a giant sperm-whale may be 2^ feet between their 

 extremities, although 12 to 15 feet is a more frequent measurement. 

 The teeth of a sperm-whale are, as a rule, 5 or 6 inches long, not 

 6-9 inches, and the number 120 appears to be due to a misunder- 

 standing: the original report may have been that this marine mon- 

 ster had 60 teeth on both sides of the lower jaw, which may have 

 been misinterpreted to mean: sixty teeth on each side of the lower 

 jaw. As a rule, a sperm-whale has from 20 to 25 teeth on each 

 side of the lower jaw, according to the age of the animal. Pliny 

 says of the physeter, i. e., the sperm-whale: it is the largest animal 

 in the Gallic ocean, i. e., the Bay of Biscay. It raises itself like an 

 enormous pillar, towering above the sails of the vessels^ and spout- 

 ing a flood of water.- Cachalots often raise their enormous square 

 head above the water, and the head of a giant sperm-whale may be 

 more than 30 feet long. 



There is no reason for doubting the statement that there were 

 some chains fastened to one of the rocks near the entrance to the 

 port of Joppa; nor is there any reason for discrediting the report 

 that the skeleton of a sea-monster was brought from Joppa to 

 Rome in 58 b. c. A large sperm-whale may have been drifted 

 ashore at Joppa, and the skeleton may have been left there for a 

 long time until it was finally carried to Rome at the time of Cicero. 

 The legend of the maiden exposed to the sea-monster and rescued 

 by a gallant hero is a subsequent embellishment of popular fancy, ^'^ 

 suggested by the presence of the huge skeleton on the beach, and 

 the author of the Sadducean apologue known as the Book of Jonah 



^The masts of ancient vessels were not very high. A terra-cotta model 

 of a Phoenician ship is figured in the translation of Ezekicl (in the Poly- 

 chrome Bible) p. 149. 



^Plin. Nat. Hist. IX., 8: Maximum animal . . . in Gallico oceano 

 physeter ingentis columnce modo sc attollens altiorque navium velis dihwiem 

 quandam crucians. 



^ Cf. the legend of King Bodo and Brunhildis in connection with the 

 granite cliff, known as Rossmannshbhe, in the Hartz mountains, and the 

 legend of the pillar of salt in the story of Lot (Gen. xix, 26; Luke xvii, 32). 

 See the picture of the pillar of salt at Usdum facing p. 308 of Lynch 's Nar- 

 rative of the U. S. Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea (Phila- 

 delphia, 1850). 



