Chap. 16.] FISHES. 381 



ficulty, unless the head is cut off at once. They make a noise 

 which sounds like lowing, whence their name of " sea-calf." 

 They c^re susceptible, however, of training, and with their voice, 

 as well as by gestures, can be taught to salute the public ; when 

 called by their name, they answer with a discordant kind of 

 grunt. 14 No animal has a deeper sleep 15 than this ; on dry 

 land it creeps along as though on feet, by the aid of what it 

 uses as fins when in the sea. Its skin, even when sepa- 

 rated from the body, is said to retain a certain sensitive sym- 

 pathy with the sea, and at the reflux 16 of the tide, the hair on 

 it always rises upright : in addition to which, it is said that 

 there is in the right fin a certain soporiferous influence, and 

 that, if placed under the head, it induces sleep. 



(14.) There are only two animals without hair that are 

 viviparous, the dolphin and the viper. 17 



CHAP. 16. HOW MANY KINDS OF FISH THERE ABE. 



There are seventy-four 18 species of fishes, exclusive of those 



14 " Fremitu." From their lowing noise, the French have also called 

 these animals *' veaux de mer," and we call them " sea-calves." JElian, 

 Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 56, and Diodorus Siculus, B. iii., also speak of train- 

 ing the sea-calf. Hardouin says that Lopez de Gomara, one of the more 

 recent writers on Mexico, in his day, had given an account of an Indian 

 sea-calf, or manati, as it was called by the natives, that had become quite 

 tame, and answered readily to its name ; and that, although not very large, 

 it was able to bear ten men on its back. He also tells us of a much more 

 extraordinary one, which Aldrovandus says he himself had seen at Bolog- 

 na, which would give a cheer (vocem ederet) for the Christian princes when 

 asked, but would refuse to do so for the Turks ; just, Hardouin says, as 

 we see dogs bark, and monkeys grin and jump, at the mention of a par- 

 ticular name. 



15 Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 408, mentions this fact, and Juvenal, Sat. 

 iii. 1. 238, alludes to it : u Would break the slumbers of Drusus and of 

 sea-calves." 



16 This assertion, though untrue, no doubt, as to sympathy with the tides, 

 is in some degree supported by the statement of Rondelet, B. xvi. c. 6, 

 who says that he had often perceived changes in the wind and weather 

 prognosticated by the hide of this animal ; for that when a south wind 

 was about to blow, the hair would stand erect, while when a north wind 

 was on the point of arising, it would lie so flat that you would hardly 

 know that there was any hair on the surface. 



17 Hardouin remarks, that Pliny classes the viper probably among the 

 aquatic animals, either because it was said to couple with the mursena, or 

 else because it has a womb not unlike that of the cartilaginous fishes, 



18 Hardouin suggests that the proper reading here is probably 144, be- 



