BOOK IX.] History of Nature. 139 



Years of Age (Prcetextati} usually were whipped with Eels' 

 Skins, and on that Account were freed from all other 

 Punishment. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

 Of Flat Fishes. 



OF Flat Fishes there is another Sort, which instead of a 

 Back-bone have a Cartilage : as the Raia, Pastinaca, Squa- 

 tina, and Torpedo : and also, those which the Greeks have 

 termed by the Names of the Bos Lamia, Acquila, and Rana. 

 In this Number are to be ranked the Squali (Sharks) also ; 

 although they are not flat. All this kind in general Aristotle 

 was the first to call in Greek Selache : we cannot distinguish 

 them by this Name, unless we are permitted to call them 

 Cartilaginous Fishes. But all the Sort of them that devour 

 Flesh are such ; and they feed as they lie supine, like as we 

 observed in the Dolphins. And whereas other Fishes cast 

 Spawn, this Class only, in the same manner as those 

 which we call Cete, 1 bring forth their Young alive ; with the 

 Exception, however, of that one which they call Rana. 



1 The name of Cete is here mentioned as equivalent to Balaena for 

 the Whales, ch. 6 : but the mode in which they bear their young is very 

 different from that of the cartilaginous fishes, though both, or at least the 

 Sharks among the latter, are viviparous. The Whales are placental 

 animals, but all true fishes produce eggs, although in some instances they 

 are hatched within the body of the parent. 



The fishes here mentioned are : Eaia, several species of Rays and 

 Skates ; Pastinaca, mentioned before, ch. 20 ; Squatina, Squalus squatina, 

 Linn., and Squatina vulgaris^ Cuv. ; the Monk, or Angel-fish ; and Tor- 

 pedo, ch. 16. The Bos is a gigantic species of Ray, Raia cephaloptera : 

 forming the genus Cephaloptera of Cuvier ; and Oppian (B. ii.) gives an 

 account of the great injury it does to the divers for coral, by clasping 

 them and preventing their ascent to the surface. Lamia is the White 

 Shark : Squalus carcharias of Linn., and Carcharias vulgaris, Cuv. 

 Acquila, Myliolatis aquila. Eagle Ray. Rana, Lophius piscatorius, Linn. : 

 Fishing Frog, or Angler. Wern. Club. 



