BOOK IX.] History of Nature. 107 



on high, Nature is always framing some new Creatures, 

 many of which are found to be monstrous Things. For 

 the Seeds and universal Elements are so interlaced and 

 iningled one with another, partly by the blowing (of the 

 Winds), and at other Times by the Agitation (of the Waves), 

 that it may truly be said, according to the vulgar Opinion, 

 that whatever is bred in any Part of Nature is to be found 

 also in the Sea ; and many more Things besides, which no- 

 where else are to be seen. For there truly not only exist the 

 Forms of Land Animals, but also of many other Things; and 

 there may one see also what appear like Bunches of Grapes, 

 Swords, and Saws; yea, and also Cucumbers, which for 

 Colour, Smell, and Taste, resemble those that grow on 

 the Land. And therefore we need the less to wonder, if in 

 such little Snails there are some Things standing out like 

 the Heads of Horses. 



CHAPTER III. 

 Of Beasts in the Indian Sea. 



THE Indian Sea breedeth the most and biggest Animals ; 

 among which Whales (Balaenae) 1 are as large as four Acres of 

 Land ; and Pristes two hundred Cubits: and no Wonder, for 



1 To avoid a confusion of references, the species of whales mentioned 

 by Pliny are here arranged at one view ; and, so far as the subject admits, 

 identified with those recognised by modern naturalists. 



The term " Balaenae " appears, in its widest extension, to have been a 

 general name for the whole tribe ; in which also were comprised some 

 inhabitants of the ocean, of large size, which had nothing in common 

 with the proper whales but their magnitude. The Pristis, perhaps the 

 Basking Shark (Selachus maximus, Cuv.), and some other species, and 

 certainly the Tunny, when, as sometimes happens, it has attained enor- 

 mous growth, were anciently arranged among cetaceous fishes. But be- 

 sides this, the word " Balaena," or " Phalsena," was the proper name of 

 the animal known as the Balcenoptera musculus, or the Rorqual of 

 Cuvier; which they did not distinguish from B. Boops. 



The creatures referred to at the end of Ch. 3, and compared to horses, 

 asses, and bulls, were probably Dugongs, or Sea-cows ; the Manatus and 

 Halichore of Cuvier, and comprised in the genus Trichecus of Linncus. 

 Physeter, a modern as well as ancient genus of whales, is still known on 



