Chap. 16.] riSHES. 381 



ficulty, unless the head is cut off at once. They make a noise 

 which sounds like lowing, whence their name of "sea-calf." 

 They are susceptible, however, of training, and with their voice, 

 as weU as by gestures, can be taught to salute the public ; when 

 called by their name, they answer with a discordant kind of 

 grunt.". No animal has a deeper sleep" than this; on dry 

 land it creeps along as though on feet, by the aid of what it 

 uses as fins when in the sea. Its skin, even when sepa- 

 rated from the body, is said to retain a certain sensitive sym- 

 pathy with the sea, and at the reflux" of the tide, the hair on 

 it always rises upright : in addition to which, it is said that 

 there is in the right fin a certain soporiferous influence, and 

 that, if placed under the head, it induces sleep. 



(14.) There are onl^ two animals without hair that are 

 viviparous, the dolphin and the viper." 



CHAP. 16. HOW MABT KTNnS OF FISH THEKE ABE. 



There are seventy-four'* species of fishes, exclusive of those 



'* " Fremitu." From their lowing noise, the French have also called 

 these animals " veaux de mer," and we call them " sea-calves." .Slian, 

 Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 56, and Diodorus @iculus, S. iii., also speak of train- 

 ing the sea-calf. Hardouin says that Lopez de Gomara, one of the more 

 recent writers on Mexico, in his day, had given an account of an Indian 

 sea-calf, or manati, as it was called by the natives, that had become quite 

 tame, and answered readily to its name ; and that, although not very large, 

 it was able to hear ten men on its back. He also tells us of a much more 

 extraordinary one, which Aldrovandus says he himself lutd seen at Bolog- 

 na, which would give a cheer (vocem ederet) for the Christian princes when 

 asked, but would refuse to do so for the Turks ; just, Hardouin says, as 

 we see dogs hark, and monkeys grin and jump, at the mention of a par- 

 ticular name. 



1' Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 408, mentions this fact, and Juvenal, Sat. 

 iii. 1. 238, alludes to it : " Would break the slumbers of Srusus and of 

 sea-calves." 



'^ This assertion, though untrue, no doubt, as to sympathy with the tides, 

 is in some de^ee supported by the statement of Bondelet, B. xvi. c. 6, 

 who says that he had often perceived changes in the wind and weather 

 prognosticated by the hide of this animal ; for that when a south wind 

 was about to blow, the hair would stand erect, while when a north wind 

 was on the point of arising, it would lie so flat that you would hardly 

 know that there was any hair on the surface, ' 



'^ Hardouin remarks, that Pliny classes the viper probably among the 

 aquatic animals, either because it was said to couple with the muraena, or 

 else because it has a womb not unlike that of the cartilaginous fishes. 



'' Hardouin suggests that the proper reading here is probably 144, be- 



