NATURAL HISTORY of NOR WA Y. zo 9 



While I am fpeaking of Egypt, I recoiled from the aflbciation L e a n r | e in Se r t " her 

 of ideas, that though I have not read of any Sea-ferpents inpiaces. 

 thofe parts of the globe, yet I find that in &gypt, and other 

 places in Africa, there are found in frefh-water lakes and rivers a 

 fpecies of Serpents, almoft as large as that which I am treating 

 of, and even more dangerous. 



Pliny fays, in his Hift. Nat. Lib. viii. cap. xiv. " Megafthenes 

 fcribit, in India ferpentes in tantam magnitudinem adolefcere, ut 

 folidos hauriant cervos taurofque. Metrodorus circa Rhyndacum 

 amnem in Ponto ut fupervolantes, quamtumvis alte perniciterque 

 alites hauftu raptas abforbeant. Nota eft in Punicis bellis ad flu- 

 men Bagradam a Regulo Imperatore baliftis tormentifque ut oppi- 

 dum aliquod expugnata ferpens cxx. pedum longitudinis. Pellis 

 ejus maxiilseque ufque ad bellum Numantinum duravere Romse in 

 templo. Faciunt his fidem in Italiam appellatae Bose, in tantam 

 amplitudinem exeuntes, ut divo Claudio Principe, occifae in Vati- 

 cano folidus in alvo fpe&atus fit infans. Aluntur primo bubuli 

 la&is fucco, unde nomen traxere. Coeterorum animalium, quse 

 modo conve&a undique Italise contigere fepius, formas nihil atti- 

 net fcrupulofe referre." 



What is here related, concerning a Serpent that was killed 

 near the river Bagrada in Africa, feems almoft incredible, though 

 it is confirmed by Livy in his 29th decade, primi belli Punici, 

 and by Valer. Max. Lib. i. cap. ult. One could hardly be able 

 to comprehend or believe that a Serpent could flop a whole Ro- 

 man army, and difpute their pafTage acrofs a river; or that it 

 killed many of the people, who, with their beft weapons, could 

 hardly wound it : but we fee on what authorities it is fupported. 

 Still more ftrange is that ftory which Diodorus Siculus, Lib. iii. re- 

 lates of a Serpent in Egypt, 60 feet long, which, though butfmall 

 in comparifon of thofe we have been fpeaking of, yet is in ap- 

 pearance too large to be caught, and carried alive to Alexandria, 

 to be prefented to king Ptolomy the Second. 



This great prince was eminent for his curiofity, he was de- 

 firous of feeing every thing that was ftrange or fcarce. Thofe 

 that brought him elephants, or any other uncommon animals, 

 were liberally rewarded. By this means the Greeks became ac- 

 quainted with many things that were before utterly unknown to 

 them. Such a laudable curiofity, and fo noble a fpirit in a king, 

 to reward all thofe that contributed to pleafe and inftrutt him, 

 prevailed upon a company of huntfmen to attempt to bring him 

 the aforefaid great Serpent, which lived chiefly in the water, but 

 ftrayed afhore from its proper element a confiderable diftance 

 Part II. H h h every 



