Chap. 16.] 
riSHES. 
381 
ficulty, unless the head is cut off at once. They make a noise 
which sounds like lowing, whence their name of sea-calf." 
They are susceptible, however, of training, and with their voice, 
as w^ell as by gestures, can be taught to salute the public ; when 
called by their name, they answer with a discordant kind of 
grunt. 1^0 animal has a deeper sleep^^ than this ; on dry 
land it creeps along as though on feet, by the aid of what it 
uses as fins when in the sea. Its skin, even when sepa- 
rated from the body, is said to retain a certain sensitive sym- 
pathy with the sea, and at the reflux of the tide, the hair on 
it always rises upright : in addition to which, it is said that 
there is in the right fin a certain soporiferous influence, and 
that, if placed under the head, it induces sleep. 
(14.) There are only two animals without hair that are 
viviparous, the dolphin and the viper. 
CHAP. 16. HOW MANY KINDS OF FISH THEEE AKE. 
There are seventy-four^^ species of fishes, exclusive of those 
^'^ Fremitu.'* From their lowing noise, the French have also called 
these animals " veaux de mer," and we call them " sea-calves." ^lian, 
Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 56, and Diodorus Siculus, B. iii., also speak of train- 
ing the sea-calf. Hardouin says that Lopez de Gomara, one of the more 
recent writers on Mexico, in his day, had given an account of an Indian 
sea-calf, or manati, as it was called by the natives, that had become quite 
tame, and answered readily to its name ; and that, although not very large, 
it was able to bear ten men on its back. He also tells us of a much more 
extraordinary one, which Aldrovandus says he himself had seen at Bolog- 
na, which would give a cheer (vocem ederet) for the Christian princes when 
asked, but would refuse to do so for the Turks ; just, Hardouin says, as 
we see dogs bark, and monkeys grin and jump, at the mention of a par- 
ticular name. 
1^ Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 408, mentions this fact, and Juvenal, Sat. 
iii. 1. 238, alludes to it : " Would break the slumbers of Drusus and of 
sea-calves." 
This assertion, though untrue, no doubt, as to sympathy with the tides, 
is in some degree supported by the statement of Eondelet, B. xvi. c. 6, 
w^ho says that he had often perceived changes in the wind and weather 
prognosticated by the hide of this animal ; for that when a south wind 
was about to blow, the hair would stand erect, while when a north wind 
w^as on the point of arising, it would lie so flat that you would hardly 
know that there was any hair on the surface. 
Hardouin remarks, that Pliny classes the viper probably among the 
aquatic animals, either because it was said to couple with the muraena, or 
else because it has a womb not unlike that of the cartilaginous fishes. 
IS Hardouin suggests that the proper reading here is probably 144, be- 
