28 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



phus, that learned Jew, tells us of a river in Judea that runs 

 swiftly all the six days of the week, and stands still and rests all 

 their Sabbath.* 



But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell you some 

 things of the monsters, or fish, call them what you will, that they 

 breed and feed in them. Pliny the philosopher says, in the third 

 chapter of his ninth Book, that in the Indian Sea, the fish called 

 balacna or whirlpool is so long and broad, as to take up more 

 in length and breadth than two acres of ground, and of other fish 

 of two hundred cubits long,f and that in the river Ganges, there 

 be eels of tliirty fcetij: long. He says there, that these monsters 

 appear in that sea only, when the tempestuous winds oppose the 

 torrents of waters falling from the rocks into it, and so turning 

 what lay at the bottom to be seen on the water's top. And he 

 says, that the people of Cadara, an island near this place, make 

 the timber for their houses of those fish-bones. He there tells 

 us, that there are sometimes a thousand of these great eels found 

 wrapped, or interwoven together. He tells us there, that it 

 appears that dolphins love music, § and will come, when called 

 for, by some men or boys, that know and use to feed them, and 

 that they can swim as swift as an arrow can be shot out of a 

 bow, and much of this is spoken concerning the dolphin, and 

 other fish, as may be found also in the learned Dr. Casaubon's 

 Discourse of Credulity and Incredulity, printed by him about the 

 year 1670. || 



* Josephus tells a story of a river between Arcea and Raphanea, and 

 says that Titus saw it. (Jewish War, vii., 5.) He, however, reverses 

 Walton's account, making it run on the seventh day, and stand still six days ; 

 but Pliny (Nat. Hist., xxxi., 11) makes it run six days and stand still on 

 the seventh. Instances of intermitting fountains are given by geographers 

 (Varenius i., 17). This stream has been found by no traveller but Pur- 

 chas. — Am. Ed. 



f Balisna properly means a whale. Pliny's story is outdone by the 

 Kraken of Bishop Pantoppidan, which was an English mile and a half in 

 circumference, — Am. Ed. 



X What would he have said to our sea serpent ? — im.. Ed. 



^ The story of Arion and his Dolphin is well known, and has several 

 repetitions among the ancients. For another delightful story see Oppian, v., 

 570-6G0 (Jones's Translation.) The seal is also fond of music. — im. Ed. 



II Meric Casaubon, a native of Geneva, but educated at 0;xford, after- 



