272 The Natural Hiftory of the Book 1X, 
The Inhabitant of fo fmall a Shell cannot reafonably be expected to 
abound with a large Quantity of fo valuable a Liquor ; and indeed an 
hundred of them are fcarcely fufficient to wet and difcolour a Cambrick 
or Lawn Handkerchief of an ordinary Size. } 
Where WI. As the Shell of the Murex differs from that of the Purpura; fo | 
ft. the Places, which each more particularly delights to frequent and inhabit, 
are alfo different. Pliny, in Tecounting the various Kinds or Sorts of the 
Purpura, diftinguifhes them very circumftantially (whether juitly or No, 
let the Reader determine) by the Places of their Abode ; ftiling fome 
Pelagie (f), that love and haunt the deep Water; and are thofe of which 
he fpeaks, when he fays, that fome are caught with {mall Nets, caft into 
the Deep: Others again he calls Listorales (, £), fuch as frequent the 
Shore ; others Luzen/es, which delight in Mud and Slime; and others 
Algenfes, which fhroud or hide themfelves in the Sea-Weed. But the 
Buccinum, or, what is the fame, the Murex, fticks and faftens, he fays, 
only on Rocks, and there or thereabouts is gathered or picked up (é}. 
And in this Situation I firft difcovered it. For, walking one Day on the 
Shore, on the North Side of the Ifland, and feeing a Shell-Fith, fixed to 
the Rock before me, I ordered a Slave to fetch it. The Lad, advancing 
towards it with too much Hurry and Impetuofity, grafped it with fo 
much Roughnefs, that his Hand was immediately ftained with a florid 
and moft delightful Crimfon. di 
This Accident, the Reader will fuppofe, awakened my Curiofity in 
no lefs a Degree, than one of much the like Nature did that of the. 
Egyptian Hercules; whom the Inhabitants of old Tyre acknowlege to 
have been the firft Difcoverer of the Murex, and Inventor of the Purple- 
Dye. ‘ He,” as Julius Pollux relates the Story, amufing himfelf on 
“* the Sea-coaft, and perceiving the Hair of his Dog’s Lips to be. tinged 
*¢ with a fine Red, was excited to examine more nicely into the Caufe ; 
‘ and difcovered that his Dog had found, and been cating, the Purpura, or 
** Purple-Fith (2). Or rather thus 5 as the Story is related by Polydore 
*) The Scholiaft on Apollonius’s Argonauts, commenting on the Word Top Puioeaveer,. 
1. vu. 461, explains it, ndJa Catbec evebupeiro, “ He thought upon it deeph or ferioufly in 
‘* his Mind ;” and adds this Reafon, Top Quine yele eidog inebvog éy Reber ris baracons eugig= 
xopevoy s the Purple is a Kind of Fith found in the Bottom of the Sea, See alfo Scho), 
in L. ii. v. 548, 
(g) Tam induced to believe thefe Purpura littorales are the Murex ; and that what he 
fays of them, means no more, than what he tells us of the Buccinum or Murex, when 
he fays, it is gathered or taken about or near the Rocks, And then the Purpure kittorales 
of Pkny are the fame as the /maller Purpurea of Athenceus, which are bred on the 
Shores and Sea-coaft. 
(2) Buccinum non nifi petris adberet ; circague [copulos legitur., L, ix. C, 36, 
(2) No one will doubt, I believe, that this was the Murex ;and yet we fee the Grams 
marian calls it the Purpura: An Inftance of what hath been before obferved, that thefe.. th 
Names are attributed indifcriminately by Authors to the fame Fifth, And Polydore Vergil, ‘i 
in the Citation that follows, is guilty of the fame Error. 
Fergil, 
