1 10 History of Nature. [BooK IX. 



bitants of Ulyssipon 1 was sent to inform him, that there was 

 seen and heard within a certain Cave a Triton, sounding a 

 Shell; and that he was known by his Form. And it is not 

 false that there is such a Creature as a Nereid; only their 

 Body is rough with Scales, even in those Parts where they 

 possess the human Form. For such a Female Being was 

 beheld on the same Shore ; and the neighbouring Inha- 

 bitants heard its Moaning from a Distance when it was 

 dying. Also, a Governor of Gaul, under .Divus Augustus, 

 wrote, that many of these Nereids were seen dead upon the 

 Shore. I possess Authors, illustrious in the Equestrian 

 Order, who testify that in the Ocean near Gades they saw a 

 Sea-man, in the whole Body perfectly resembling a Man : 

 that in the Night Season he would come aboard their Boats; 

 and on whatever Part he sat, he weighed it down ; so that if 

 he continued there any long Time he would even sink it. 

 When Tiberius was Sovereign, in an Island opposite the 

 Coast of the Province of Lugdunensis, the Sea, when it 

 ebbed, left upon the Sands, at one Time, above three hun- 

 dred Beasts, of a wonderful Variety and Bigness. And 

 there were no fewer found upon the Coast of the Santones. 

 And among the Rest there were Elephants and Rams, with 

 Horns like those (of the Land), except that they were 

 white: and many Nereids also. Turanius hath reported, 

 that a Beast was cast upon the Shore at Gades, of which the 

 Breadth of the two Fins forming the Ends of the Tail was 

 sixteen Cubits ; it had 120 Teeth, of which the biggest 

 were nine Inches in Measure, and the least half a Foot. 

 M. Scaurus, among other wonderful Things in his 



(Phoca) has been seen, so closely resembling the human figure as to ob- 

 tain the name of Merman, has, even in modern times, been confidently 

 asserted. But the evidence has failed in proportion to the progress of 

 inquiry ; and the opinion of naturalists of the present age appears to be, 

 that the casual and hasty appearance of the young of the Walrus, before 

 it has obtained its tusks, has been the cause of this mistaken idea. The 

 same creature, in its adult growth, was, beyond doubt, the sea-elephant of 

 the ancients. Wern. Club. 



1 The modern Lisbon. Wern. Club. 



