I 



Created hugeft that fwim th' ocean ftream : 

 Him, haply flumb'ring on the Norway foam, 

 The pilot of fome fmall night-founder 'd fkiff 

 Deeming fome ifland, oft, as feamen tell, 

 With fixed anchor in his fcaly rind, 

 Moors by his fide under the lee, while night 

 Inverts the fea, and wiflied morn delays." 



None of the cetaceous tribe are furniQied with fcales, 

 or any thing analogous to them. It muft be acknow- 

 ledged however that this obfervation may appear in no 

 fmall degree hypercritical, and that Milton by the ex- 

 preflion of fcaly rind might only mean rough or fcaly in 

 the fame fenfe that thofe epithets are applied to the bark 

 of a tree, or any irregular furface. There can be little 

 doubt however that real and proper fcales were intended 

 by the poet ; nor is it difficult to difcover the particu- 

 lar circumftance which impreffed Milton with this erro- 

 neous idea, viz. a figure in the works of Gefner, fo 

 injudicioufly expreffed as to appear on a curfory view 

 as if coated with large fcales, with a veffel near it with 

 harpooners, &c. over which is the obfervation of failors 

 often miftaking a whale for an ifland, and thus endan- 

 gering themfelves by attempting to anchor on it. As 

 the general learning and extenfive reading of our great 

 poet are fo well known, it can hardly be doubted 

 that he was converfant with the writings of Gefner, 

 whofe work was then the great depofitory of natural 

 knowledge, and that the figure and defcription there 

 given left a lading impreilion on his mind. 



