206 NATURAL HIS TORY of NOR WA T. 



SECT. IX. 



if u can be I have quoted thefe verfes, as a kind of a teftimony to the 

 Iather e Z kn exiftence and properties of this extraordinary creature. The fup- 

 the whak. p fi t i on fa^ tne Sea-fnake anfwers the defcription of the Levi- 

 athan better than any other animal yet known j and may be 

 underftood by the Leviathan, or the Crooked-ferpent, Ifaiah 

 xxvii. i. that fhall flay the Dragon that is in the fea ; or that 

 it may be the Long-ferpent mentioned in Job xxvi. 13 5 is not 

 without fome foundation. That it is the Piercing-ferpent or the 

 Boom-ferpent, Serpens veclis, according to fome authors, is not 

 improbable ; for they often lie ftretched out before a creek, like 

 a boom, to block up the paffage. If Bochart had had any 

 knowledge of this creature, which is very little known any 

 where but in the North, he probably would not have taken the 

 Whale to be the Leviathan. u Cetum Hebrsei iifdem nominibus 

 appellant quibus draconem nempe Thannin & Leviathan, aut ob 

 formse fimilitudinem, aut ratione molis, & quia Cetus in aqua- 

 tilibus tantum prseftat, quantum in reptilibus prseftant virtute 

 Dracones." Hierozoic. Lib. 1. cap. vi. p. 45. The fimilitude of 

 fhape, which writers urge betwixt the Whale and the Dragon, is 

 what I cannot find out 5 nor can I difcover how this author (whom 

 I otherwife efteem as one of the moft learned men the world ever 

 produced) comes to fay, in the fame place, p. 50., " Balaenam 

 multi volunt ideo dici ma wm Serpentem ve&is, liaiah xxvii. 1. 

 quod ab uno maris extremo ad alterum, veclis inftar, attingat." 

 This does not at all agree with the Whale, which is ufually but 

 50, 70, or at moft 80 feet in length # ; at leaf! not near Co well 

 as with the Sea-ihake. The length of this creature, as I obferved 

 above, according to our fifhermen, who have ieen them, is equal 

 to that of a cable, that is, 600 feet. Thefe Sea-fnakes alio, like 

 other creatures, may not be all exactly of a fize ; but fbme, per- 

 haps, may be found twice as large as others of their kind, as may 

 be obferved of the Land-fnakes, which differ very much in fize. 

 I have been informed by fome of our iea-faring men, that a cable 

 would not be long enough to meafure the length of fome of them, 

 when they are obferved on the furface of the water in an even 

 line. They fay thofe round lumps or folds fometimes lie, one 



* Bochart in the fame place difclaims the Talmudifts palpable falfities about the 

 Whale's fize, &c. " Hebrsei fsepe mendaces in hoc argumento poriffimum men- 

 tiuntur liberaliffime. In illis modeftiflimi cetis quingentorum ftadiorum longitudinem 

 affignant, hoc eft milliarium plus fexaginta. In Traclatu Talmudico Bava Bathra, 

 fol. 73. col. 2. Navisqusedam in dorfo ceti navigans, iter ab una pinna ad alteram, 

 tertio demum die confecit. 



after 



