54 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



wings. Also, he made a ship with all the tackling 

 to it, no bigger than a bee might hide it with her 

 wings." 



The eighth book discusses land animals ; con- 

 taining notices, or rather anecdotes, of elephants, dra- 

 gons, lions, panthers, tigers, cameleopards, unicorns, 

 wolves, hyaenas, ounces, crocodiles, the river-horse, 

 the rhinoceros, deer, horses, apes, mules, oxen, sheep, 

 goats, swine, hares, rabbits, apes, monkeys, serpents, 

 lizards, squirrels, urchins, badgers, rats, and mice. 

 Many wonderful stories are told of the elephant, the 

 lion, the wolf, &c. and the combats of these ferocious 

 animals which the emperors, consuls, and generals, 

 exhibited at Rome for the amusement of the people ; 

 but the scientific reader will look in vain for any 

 thing like classification or methodical arrangement, 

 (that indeed was not Pliny's object,) except that he 

 has begun with the largest, and ends with the small- 

 er genera. Of elephants, lions, and wolves, some cu- 

 rious particulars are related. The following is a short 

 . extract from the chapter on " Dogges." " Among 

 those domesticall creatures that conuerse with vs, 

 there be many things worth the knowledge, and 

 namely, as touching dogges, the most faithfull and 

 trustye companions of all others to man. And in 

 verie truth, I have heard it credibly reported of a 

 dogge that, in defence of his master, fought hard 

 against theeues robbing by the highway side; and al- 

 beit he was sorre wounded, even to death, yet would 

 he not abandon the dead body of his master, but 



