Chap. 2.] SEA MONSTERS, 359 



trouble to examine the grape-fish,^ the sword-fish,^ the saw- 

 fish,* and the cucumber-fish,^ which last so strongly resembles 

 the real cucumber both in colour and in smell. We shall find 

 the less reason then to be surprised to find that in so small an 

 object as a shell-fish^ the head of the horse is to be seen pro- 

 truding from the shell. 



CHAP. 2. (3.) THE SEA MONSTEES OF THE INDIAN" OCEAN. 



But the most numerous and largest of all these animals are 

 those found in the Indian seas ; among which there are balaenae,'^ 

 four jugera'* in extent, and the pristis,^ two hundred cubits 



2 Hardoiiin has the following remark on this passage. "Rondelet 

 and Aldrovandus only waste theii- time and pains in making their minute 

 inquiries into the present names of these fish, which took their names 

 from grapes, the wood, the saw, and the cucumber ; for by no other writer 

 do we find them mentioned even." Cuvier, however, does not seem to 

 be of Hardouiu's opinion, that such investigations are a waste of time, and 

 has suggested that the eggs of the Sepia olhciualis may be alluded to, the 

 eggs of which are in clusters of a dark colour, and bearing a strong re- 

 semblance to black grapes. This resemblance to a bunch of grapes is noticed 

 by Pliny himself, in c. 74 of the present Book. 



3 He alludes, most probably, to what we call the "sword-fish," the 

 " Xiphias gladius" of Linnseus. 



* Probably, in allusion to the " Squalus pristis" of Linnaeus. 



5 Cuvier suggests that he probably alludes to tlie " Holotliuria pentac- 

 tes" of LinnaBUs, or the sea-priapus ; and remarks, that when the animal 

 contracts itself, it bears a very strong resemblance to a cucumber. 



6 Cuvier says, that he most probably alludes to the " Syngnathus 

 hippocampus" of Linnaeus, This little fish, he says, is also called the sea- 

 horse, and having the body armed with a hard coat, might very easily have 

 been taken for a shell-fish. Its head, in miniature, bears a very strong 

 resemblance to that of a horse. 



' It is not accurately known what fish was meant by the ancients, under 

 the name of " balfena." According to some writers, it is considered to be 

 the same with what we call the " grampus." 



8 A space, as Hardouin remarks, greater than that occupied by some 

 towns, the "jugerum" being 240 feet long, and 120 broad. The vast size 

 of great fishes w^as a favourite subject with some of the ancient writers, 

 and their accounts were eagerly copied bj^ some of the early fathers, 

 Bochart has collected these various accounts in his work on Animals, B. i, 

 c. 7. In the " Arabian Nights" also, we find accounts of huge fishes in 

 the eastern seas, so large as to be taken for islands. The existence of the 

 sea-serpent is still a question in dispute ; and a whale of large size, is a 

 formidable obstacle in the way of a ship of even the largest burthen. 



^ As Hardouin remarks, we can learn neither from the works of Pliny, 

 nor yet of iElian, what fish the pristis really was. From Nonius Marcel- 

 lus, c. 13, we find that it was a very long fish of large size, but naiTow 



