%i6 NATURAL HISTORY of NO RTF A T. 



vaftis difpenfa ramis, ut ex ea caufa fretum nunquam intrafle cre- 

 datur. Apparent & ROTiE appellatse a fimilitudine, quaternis 

 diftin&ae radiis, modiolos eorum oculis duobus utrinque clauden- 

 tibus Ionis." The doable account that is here given of a crea- 

 ture which refembles a wheel, feparated into rays, or a tree, 

 with fuch large branches that it cannot get through a channel, 

 feems to agree with the accounts of the Kraken already given, 

 with his many large horns or branches, as it were fpringing up from 

 its body, which is round *. Both thefe defcriptions confirm my 

 former fuppofitions, namely, that this Sea-animal belongs to the 

 Polype or Star-fifh fpecies ? which Have been particularly defcribed 

 in the preceding chapter. It feems to be of that Polypus kind 

 which is called by the Dutch Zee-fonne, by Rondeletius and 

 Gefner Stella Arborefcens, ' i, e. a Star which (hoots its rays into 

 branches like thofe of trees, according to the more exa£t defer ip- 

 tion juft referred to, where I gave it the name of Medufa's Head. 



What I have farther to obferve is, that this curl'd fort of Star- 

 fifh, with fo many branches or rays, is very apt to flick to, and 

 entangle themfelves in the weeds and fhrubs that grow at the bot- 

 tom of the fea, and are often drawn up with them by the fiftier- 

 men. When they are dried, and their branches are fhrunk in, they 

 are feldom above fix or eight inches in diameter ; but when they 

 are juft taken out of the water they are much larger. A very 

 worthy perfon told me he had fome of them of an extraordinary 

 bignefs ; and others have feen them above four times as large as 

 the common fize, fplafhing the water about with their numerous 

 branches or arms. 



Thefe Medufa's-heads are fuppofed, by fome fea-faring people 

 here, to be the young of the great Sea-krake ; perhaps they are 

 their fmalleft ovula : and I do not doubt but it is the fame 

 MedufaVhead, or Stella Arborefcens, of which Mr. Griffith 

 Hugues treats in the Philofophical Tranfaflions. This having 

 juft come into my hands,, I (hall infert it ; and fhall likewife add 

 to it, what has been quoted in the preceding chapter. (( II a 

 decouvert une nouvelle efpece d'Etoile de mer, laquelle fort du 

 rocher par une efpece de pedicule, 8c elle exprime exa&ement la 

 figure rayonnee de la fleur d'une Ficoide. Mais cette fleur eft 



*ln that ancient manufcript called Speculum Regale, becaufe it is afcribed to 

 the Norvegian king Sverre, Ol. Wormius, who had the treatife in his hands, found 

 fome few words, which feem to allude to this the largeft creature of the ocean ; 

 for when, in his Mufeum, p. 279, he is enumerating the various forts of Whales, 

 he concludes, p. 280, with the following words :, " Reftat una fpecies, quam Hafgufe 

 vocant, cujus magnitudo latet, cum raro confpiciatur. Illi, qui fe corpus vidiffe 

 narrant, fimiliorem infulse quam Beftiae volunt, nee unquam ejus inventum cadaver, 

 quocirca funt qui exiftiment, non nifi duo ejus generis in natura efie, 



prefque 





