106 NATURALHISTORYof^OiJ WA T. 



SEC T. IX. 



if it can be I have quoted thele verfes, as a kind of a teftimony to the 

 ratherXa n an exiftence and properties of this extraordinary creature. The fup- 

 the male. p fi t i on tnat t ^ Q Sea-fhake anfwers the description of the Levi- 

 athan better than any other animal yet known ; 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 ; is not 

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

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

 improbable ; for they often lie frretchod 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. i. cap. vi. p. 45. The fimilitude of 

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

 what I cannot find out ; 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,, u Balsenam 

 multi volunt ideo dici fro, wm Serpentem veclis, Ifaiah 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 leaft not near fo well 

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

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

 to that of a cable, that is, 600 feet. Thefe Sea-fhakes alfo, like 

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

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

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

 I have been informed by fome of our foa-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 falflties about the 

 Whale's fize, &c. " Hebrasi fa^pe mendaces in hoc arguments potiflimum men- 

 tiuntur liberaliffime. In illis modeftiflimi cetis quingentorum ftadiorum longitudinem 

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

 fol. y%. col. 2. Navis quasdam in dorfo ceti navigans, iter ab una pinna ad alteram, 

 tertip demum die confecit. 



after 



