TUNNY. 87 



sometimes to attain. It is certain that the name of Thon or 

 Than — in the plural Thannin — Avas in early ages applied to 

 any of the larger inhabitants of the sea, and even of the 

 river, — as the crocodile; and that its special application to the 

 proper Whales is comparatively modern, and was only adopted 

 because of the greatly superior size of these animals, as in 

 still later times was also the Greek name of the Kete, and 

 the corresponding Latin -word Ccte, both of which have been 

 familiarly used to signify a large fish of any kind. The Tunny 

 has been spoken of in these last terms as being the largest of 

 any for which observers felt a particular interest; and instances 

 are on record of its having been seen of such a size as fully 

 to equal any of the true Whales which ordinary observation 

 can have met with in the Mediterranean, Cetti, in his "Natural 

 History of Siberia," is quoted as saying that a Tunny 

 weighing a thousand pounds is not uncommon, and one has 

 been known of the weight of eighteen hundred pounds. Pliny 

 speaks as if he had been a witness to its weighing fifteen 

 talents, or about twelve hundred pounds; and he quotes 

 Aristotle for the fact that the breadth of its tail has measured 

 five cubits and a palm, or between seven and eight feet, which 

 large dimensions will appear the less surprising by reference 

 to the authority of Belon, wdio says that in the year 1G65, a 

 Tunny was caught on the coast of Spain, w^hich in length 

 measured thirty-two feet, and in girth sixteen. 



The fishery for the Tunny appears to have been followed 

 in the Mediterranean from the earliest ages; and it is even 

 more than merely probable that the people along the coasts of 

 the nations w^hich settled first on the sea border of Palestine, 

 began their acquaintance with the ocean by the pursuit of 

 which we speak. If we may give credit to the authority of 

 Sanchoneatho, the art of fishing was practised by one who is 

 believed to answer to the Tubal Cain of the Scriptures, and 

 who for that purpose invented fish-hooks and the use of little 

 boats; and, according to the same authority, there were fishermen 

 at Berytus when Chronus (or Noah) was yet alive. Nor let 

 it startle us that before the flood of Noah there should have 

 been a Mediterranean Sea, with cities on its borders. Pliny 

 records a tradition of the existence of Joppa before the flood, 

 (B. 5, C. 14;) and the great goddess of the Sidonians Avas 



