DOLPHIN. 511 



expressions of Ovid and P//>z?/, the pourtraicts in 

 some ancient coyns are framed in this figure, as 

 will appear in some thereof in Gesner, others in 

 Goltzhis, and Lcercinus Hulsius in his description 

 of coyns, from Julius Ccesar unto lludolphus the 

 second. Notwithstanding, to speak strictly, in 

 their natural ligure they are streiglit, nor have 

 their spine convex ed, or more considerably em- 

 bowed than Sharks, Porpoises, Whales, and other 

 cetaceous animals, as Scaliger plainly affirmeth : 

 Corpus habet non magis curvum quayn rdiqui pisces. 

 As ocular enquiry informeth ; and as, unto such 

 as have not had the opportunity to behold them, 

 their proper pourtraicts will discover in Royidele- 

 tiuSy Gesner^ and Aldromndus, And as indeed is 

 deducible from pictures themselves ; for though 

 they be drawn repandous, or convexedly crooked, 

 in one piece, yet the Dolphin that carrieth Arioti 

 is concavously inverted, and hath its spine de- 

 pressed in another. And answerably hereunto 

 we may behold them differently bowed in medals, 

 and the Dolphins of Tarus and Fulius do make 

 another flexure from those of Commodus and 

 Agrippa, And therefore what is delivered of their 

 incurvity must either be taken emphatically, that 

 is, not really, but in appearance ; which happeneth 

 when they leap above water, and suddenly shoot 

 down again ; which is a fallacy in vision, whereby 

 streight bodies in a sudden motion protruded ob- 

 liquely downward, appear unto the eye crooked ; 

 and this is the construction of Bellonius : or, if it 

 be taken really, it must not be universally and 



