32 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 



from a root which relates to its noise, but the 

 Siren of the Greeks is very different from that 

 of these Jews the former being a fabulous, the 

 latter a real animal. Travellers describe the 

 noises of crocodiles and alligators as horrible. 

 Crocodiles, during the whole summer, says Bosc, 

 but especially immediately after they emerge from 

 the earth, that is in the spring and the epoch 

 of their amours, frequently send forth lowings 

 almost as loud as those of an ox. They respond 

 to each other often by hundreds, especially in 

 the evening, which makes in the swampy forest 

 a frightful and thundering din. Captain Jobson 

 says, that those of the river Gambia utter cries 

 that may be heard from a great distance, which 

 seem as if they issued from the ground. 



The whale also, when it expels the water, is 

 related to make a frightful noise, like distant 

 thunder. Captain Cook represents the walrus, 

 when in herds, as roaring or braying very loud, 

 and some species of seals are stated to bellow 

 like bulls. 



The hissing of serpents agrees less with the 

 radicalidea of the word dragon, than the noises 

 of either of the preceding tribes of animals. 

 The aquatic and amphibious Saurians occupy- 

 ing, as it were, a middle station between the 

 Cetaceans and Ophidians, may be regarded, 

 therefore, as the dragons par excellence. 



These, then, are the animals that I conjecture 



