1o4 THE DOLPHIN—ICHTHYOPHAGI—THE TUNNY 
Phedimus states : “‘ The Tunny is so sensible of the equinoxes 
and solstices that he teaches even men themselves without 
the help of any astrological table.” ! Further, that being dim 
sighted, or as according to #ischylus “ casting a squint-eye 
like a Tunny,”’ the fish always coast the Euxine Sea on the right 
side and contrariwise when they come forth—‘ prudently 
committing the care of their bodies to their best eye!”’ 
Again, although the fish lack knowledge of arithmetic, 
they are yet so endowed that “ they arrive in such a manner to 
the perfection of that science,” that for mutual love and protec- 
tion ‘‘ they always make up their whole fry into the form of a 
cube and make a solid of the whole number consisting of six 
equal planes, and swim in such order as to present an equal 
front in each direction.” 
“ The Tunny more than any other fish delights in the heat 
of the sun. It will burrow for warmth in the sand in shallow 
waters near the shore, or will, because it is warm, disport itself 
on the surface of the sea.’’2 With this pleasure inevitably 
surgit aliquid amari, for about the rising of the Dog-star this 
fish, as well as the sword fish, became the prey of a piercing 
parasite, which was nicknamed the “ gadfly.” 
The ordinary weights and sizes to which the Tunny attained 
are uncertain. The passages in Arist., N. H., VIII. 30, and in 
Pliny, IX. 17, on account of the doubt whether the span of tail 
should be two or five cubits are not authoritative. Richter 
records the capture in 1565 of a fish thirty-two feet long and 
sixteen feet thick, on whose skin a ship of war was depicted 
in its entirety. 
The power of the skin to expand seems the only limitation 
of their size and weight, for they take on fat till they burst.4 
No wonder that for beasts of such dimensions the Celtz used 
great iron hooks,® which elsewhere were double.6 But their 
1 Plutarch, de Sol. Anim., ch. 29. 
2 Arist., N. H., VIII. 19. 
3 Ichthyol., II. p. 376. 
4 Pliny, N. H., IX. 20, on the say-so of Arist., N. H., VI. 16, “‘ pinguescunt 
in tantum ut dehiscant.” 
5 #Elian, de nat. an., XIII. 16. 
® Oppian, hal., III. 285. 
