Chap. 43,] 
NATIONS EXTERMINATED BY ANIMALS. 
295 
with ice, the foxes are consulted, an animal which, in other 
respects, is baneful from its craftiness. It has been observed, 
that this animal applies its ear to the ice, for the purpose of 
testing its thickness ; hence it is, that the inhabitants will 
never cross frozen rivers and lakes until the foxes have passed 
over them and returned. 
CHAP. 43. (29.)— NATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN EXTEEMINATED BY 
ANIMALS. 
"We have accounts, too, no less remarkable, in reference even 
to the most contemptible of animals. M. Yarro informs us, 
that a town in Spain was undermined by rabbits, and one in 
Thessaly, by mice ; that the inhabitants of a district in 
Gaul were driven from their country by frogs, and a place 
in Africa by locusts that the inhabitants of Gyarus,^^ 
one of the Cyclades, were driven away by mice and the 
Amunclse, in Italy, by serpents. There is a vast desert tract 
on this side of the -Ethiopian Cynamolgi,^^ the inhabitants of 
which were exterminated by scorpions and venomous ants.^^ 
duals and the political power wbich they derived from their office. — B. The 
augurs, or diviners by birds, held the highest rank in the state ; but tbe 
power of their college greatly declined in the later period of the Eomaii 
history. It was finally abolished by the Emperor Theodosius. 
2- Other instances are mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, B. iii. Justin, B. 
XV. c. 2, and ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 41. — B. Showers of frogs 
are a thing not unknown in England even. They are probably caused by 
whirlwinds acting upon waters which are the haunt of these animals. 
23 The ravages of locusts have been known in all ages ; their destructive 
efi'ects in Egypt and Judea, have formed the subject of a very elaborate 
dissertation by Bochart, in his work on the " Animals of Scripture," Part 
i. B. iv. c. 3 and 4.— B. 
2^ Used as a place of banishment by the Eomans. See B. iv. c. 28, and 
c. 82, of the present Book. 
2^ See c. 82 of the present Book, and B. x. c. 85.— B. 
25 The "dog-milkers.'^ See B. vi. c. 35. 
2" " Solipugis." There has been much discussion as to the word here 
employed by Pliny, and the animal which he intends to designate. Tlie 
solipugus, solpugus, solipuga, or solipunga, probably different names of 
the same animal, is mentioned by various writers ; among others, by Lucan, 
Phars. B. ix. 1. 837 ; Diodorus Siculus, B. iii. ; Strabo, B. xvi. ; and ^lian, 
Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 40. It is again referred to in B. xxix. c. 16. The 
description given is, however, too indefinite to enable us to identify it with 
any known animal ; it would almost seem to indicate something between 
the spider and the ant. — B. We still hear in modern times of the venomous 
