384 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. Book IX. 



able, that in the Moenus, 27 a river of Germany, a fish that bears 28 

 a very strong resemblance to the sea-pig, requires to be drawn 

 out of the water by a yoke of oxen ; and, in the Danube, it is 

 taken with large hooks of iron. 29 In the Borysthenes, also, there 

 is said to be a fish of enormous size, the flesh of which has no 

 bones or spines in it, and is remarkable for its sweetness. 



In the Granges, a river of India, there is a fish found which 

 they call the platanista ; 30 it has the muzzle and the tail of 

 the dolphin, and measures sixteen cubits in length. Statins 

 Sebosus says, a thing that is marvellous in no small degree, 

 that in the same river there are fishes 30 * found, called worms ; 

 these have two gills, 31 and are sixty cubits in length ; they are 



27 The Main of the present day. But Dalechamps would read "Rheno;" 

 for, he says, this river was not known to the ancients by the name of Mcenus. 



28 According to Albertus Magnus, this fish, which so strongly resembled 

 the sea-pig, or porpoise, was the huso, a kind of sturgeon. 



29 See B. iv. c. 26. Cuvier says, that the fish here alluded to, is one of 

 the large species of sturgeon, so common in the rivers that fall into the 

 Black Sea, the bones of which are cartilaginous, and the flesh is generally 

 excellent eating. 



30 Cuvier says, that this is probably the dolphin of the Ganges ; a fish 

 described by Dr. Roxburgh, in his "Account of Calcutta," vol. vii. This fish, 

 he says, has the muzzle and the tail of the common dolphin ; but he declines 

 to assert that it attains the length of sixteen cubits. 



30 * Solinus gives an account of these worms of the Ganges, also from 

 Sebosus, but not exactly to the same effect as Pliny. He says, that they 

 are of an azure colour, are six cubits in length, and that they have two 

 arms. He gives the same account as to their extraordinary strength. 



31 It is evident that there is some mistake in the MSS. either of Solinus 

 or Pliny, as they both copied from the same source. Pliny speaks of 

 <l branchiae," or gills, while Solinus mentions "brachia," or arms; the 

 former, however, appears to be the preferable reading. Cuvier remarks 

 that Ctesias, in his Indica, c. 27, has given a similar account, but that the 

 worm mentioned by him has two teeth, and not gills, and that it only seizes 

 oxen and camels, and not elephants. He states also, that an oil was ex- 

 tracted from it, which set on fire everything that it touched. Cuvier 

 observes, that in most of the MSS. of Pliny the worm is sixty cubits long, 

 instead of six, as in some few, a length which was quite necessary to 

 enable it to devour an elephant ; and he suggests that some large conger 

 or muraena may have originally given rise to the story. It is by no means 

 improbable that some individuals of the boa or python tribe, in the vi- 

 cinity of the river, may have been taken for vast fish or river worms. 

 Among the German traditions, we find the name " worm " given to huge 

 serpents, which are said to have spread devastation far and wide ; and in 

 the north of England legends about similar u worms," are by no means 

 uncommon : the story about the " Laidly Worm," in the county of Durham, 

 for instance. 



