VOL. VI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6-13 



cient stones appear less fabulous and improbable which are related by Herodotus 

 concerning Arion, by Pliny the Elder, * concerning a dolphin enamoured of a 

 boy, whom he was wont to carry across a bay of the sea, from Baiae to Puteoli, 

 to school, &c. By Pliny the Younger, of another enamoured of a boy at Hippo 

 in Africa, whom he was wont to carry ujx)n his back in like manner. The 

 story is worth the noting, Epist. 33, 1. Q. 



But to proceed, this lish had in each jaw 48 teeth, standing in a row like 

 little blunt pegs. The tongue was flat above, of an equal breadth to the very 

 tip, which was toothed or pectinated about the edges, tied firmly down to the 

 bottom of the mouth all along the middle, as Aristotle truly describes ; whence 

 I cannot but wonder, that Rondeletius should herein contradict Aristotle, and 

 affirm qu6d delphinis lingua est mobilis, quae mod6 exeri mod6 condi potest : 

 unless perchance in this particular the dolphin differs from the porpoise. For 

 the porpoise is, as I take it, the phocaena of the ancients, which is a lesser sort 

 of dolphin, and not the delphinus; at least if the fish we are describing were a 

 porpoise; for the teeth of this fish were less than, and of a different figure 

 from, those in the jaw of the dolphin we got beyond seas; yet is the difference 

 not great between the dolphin and phocaena. As for that fish, which our sea- 

 men now call the dolphin, and which, as it is described by Mr. Terry and Li- 

 gon, has teeth on its tongue, small scales, is finned like a rock, of a pleasant 

 smell and taste; what it is I know not, but I am sure it is toto genere different 

 from the dolphin of the ancients. 



We observed not in this fish any nostrils besides those in the fistula, nor any 

 ear-holes or meatus auditorii at all ; wherein also Aristotle agrees with us, which 

 yet Rondeletius found out near the eyes ; it being manifest, says he, that a dol- 

 phin does hear, and seeing no creature can hear without a passage for that pur- 

 pose to convey sounds to the brain ; hac ratione impulsus, cum Delphini cranium 

 diligentissime contemplatus essem, manifestissimum audiendi meatum, qui ad 

 cerebrum usque patet, inveni statim post oculum, tam exiguum, ut fere oculo- 

 rum aciem fugiat. And we observed in the skull a bone answering to the os 

 petresum, which most certainly was for the use of hearing. It had six short 

 ribs with no cartilages, and seven that had cartilages (on each side I mean.) 

 The breast bone was very small. As for the name porpoise, I agree with Ges- 

 ner, that it was so called, quasi porcus piscis, most nations calling this fish por- 

 cus marinus, or the sea swine. Indeed it resembles a swine in many particulars, 

 as the fat, the strength of the snout, &c. 



* L. ix. Hist. Nat. c. 8. 

 4m2 



