358 
BOOK IX. 
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES. 
CHAP. 1.(1.) WRY THE LAEGEST ANIMALS AEE POUND IN 
THE SEA. 
"We have now given an account of tlie animals which we 
call terrestrial, and which live as it were in a sort of society 
with man. Among the remaining ones, it is well known 
that the birds are the smallest ; we shall therefore first de- 
scribe those which inhabit the seas, rivers, and standing 
waters. 
(2.) Among these there are many to be found that exceed 
in size any of the terrestrial animals even ; the evident cause 
of which is the superabundance of moisture with which they 
are supplied. Yery different is the lot of the winged animals, 
whose life is passed soaring aloft in the air. But in the seas, 
spread out as they are far and wide, forming an element at once 
so delicate and so vivifying, and receiving the generating prin- 
ciples^ from the regions of the air, as they are ever produced 
by Nature, many animals are to be found, and indeed, most of 
those that are of monstrous form ; from the fact, no doubt, that 
these seeds and first principles of being are so utterly con- 
glomerated and so involved, the one with the other, from being- 
whirled to and fro, now by the action of the winds and now 
by the waves. Hence it is that the vulgar notion may very 
possibly be true, that whatever is produced in any other de- 
partment of Ij^ature, is to be found in the sea as well ; while, 
at the same time, many other productions are there to be found 
which nowhere else exist. That there are to be found in the 
sea the forms, not only of terrestrial animals, but of inanimate 
objects even, is easily to be understood by all who will take the 
1 He has already said, in B. ii. c. 3, that "the seeds of all bodies fall 
down from the heavens, principally into the ocean, and being mixed 
together, we find that a variety of monstrous forms are in this way fre- 
quently produced." 
