Chap. 5.] 
THE BAL^TS-A. 
365 
CHAP. 5. (6.) THE EAL^NA AND THE OECA. 
The balsena^^ penetrates to our seas even. It is said that 
they are not to be seen in the ocean of Gades before the winter 
solstice, and that at periodical seasons they retire and conceal 
themselves in some calm capacious bay, in which they take a 
delight in bringing forth. This fact, however, is known to 
the orca,^^ an animal which is peculiarly hostile to the balaena, 
and the form of which cannot be in any way adequately de- 
scribed, but as an enormous mass of flesh armed with teeth. 
This animal attacks the balsena in its places of retirement, and 
with its teeth tears its young, or else attacks the females which 
have just brought forth, and, indeed, while they are still preg- 
nant ; and as they rush upon them, it pierces them just as though 
they had been attacked by the beak of a Liburnian^^ galley. 
The female balsense, devoid of all flexibility, without energy to 
defend themselves, and over-burdened by their own weight, 
weakened, too, by gestation, or else the pains of recent parturi- 
tion, are well aware that their only resource is to take to flight 
^1 As already mentioned, there is considerable doubt what fish of the 
whale species is meant under this name. Cuvier says, that even at the 
present day whales are occasionally found in the Mediterranean, and says 
that there is the head of one in the Museum of Natural History, that was 
thrown ashore at Martigues. He also observes, that in the year 1829, one 
had been cast upon the coasts of Languedoc. Ajasson suggests, that not 
improbably whales once frequented the Mediterranean in great numbers, 
but that as commerce increased, they gradually retreated to the open ocean. 
^2 Rondelet, B. xvi. c. 13, says that this animal was called "espaular " 
by the people of Saintonge. Cuvier is of opinion, also, that it is the same 
animal, which is also known by the name of "bootskopf," the Delphinus 
orca of Linnaeus. (See N. 28.) This cetaceous animal, he says, is a most 
dangerous enemy to the whale, which it boldly attacks, devouring its tongue, 
which is of a tender quality and enormous size. He thinks, however, that 
the orca taken at the port of Ostia was no other than a cachelot. 
^3 The Liburna, or Liburnica, was usually a bireme, or two-oared' galley, 
with the mast in the middle, though sometimes of larger bulk. From the 
description given of these by Varro, as quoted by Aulus Gellius, B. xvii. 
c. 3, they seem, as it has been remarked, somewhat similar to the light 
Indian massooliah boats, which are used to cross the serf in Madras roads. 
Pliny tells us, in B. xvi. c. 17, that the material of which they were con- 
structed was pine timber, as free from resin as it could possibly be ob- 
tained. The beak of these vessels was of great comparative weight, and 
its sharpness is evidently alluded to in the present passage, as also in B. 
X. c. 32. The term Liburna" was adopted from the assistance rendered 
to Augustus by the Liburni at the battle of Actium. 
