384 
pltny's natfeal history. 
Book IX. 
able, that in the Moemis,^^ a river of Germany, a fish that bears"^ 
a very strong resemblstoce to the sea-pig, requires to be drawn 
out of the water by a yoke of oxen ; and, in the Danube, it is 
taken with large hooks of iron.^^ In the Eorysthenes, also, there 
is said to be a fish of enormous size, the flesh of which has no 
bones or spines in it, and is remarkable for its sweetness. 
In the Granges, a river of India, there is a fish found which 
they call the platanista ; it has the muzzle and the tail of 
the dolphin, and measures sixteen cubits in length. -Statins 
Sebosus says, a thing that is marvellous in no small degree, 
that in the same river there are fishes'^^* found, called worms ; 
these have two gills, and are sixty cubits in length ; they are 
'^'^ The Main of the present day. But Dalechamps would read "Rheno;" 
for, he says, this river was not known to the ancients by the name of Moenus. 
28 According to Albertus Magnus, this fish, which so strongly resembled 
the sea-pig, or porpoise, was the huso, a kind of "sturgeon. 
29 See B. iv. c. 26. Cuvier says, that the fish here alluded to, is one of 
the large species of sturgeon, so common in the rivers that fall into the 
Black Sea, the bones of which are cartilaginous, and the flesh is generally 
excellent eating. 
Cuvier says, that this is probably the dolphin of the Ganges ; a fish 
described by Dr. Roxburgh, in his "Account of Calcutta," vol. vii. This fish, 
he says, has the muzzle and the tail of the common dolphin ; but he declines 
to assert that it attains the length of sixteen cubits. 
* Solinus gives an account of these worms of the Ganges, also from 
Sebosus, but not exactly to the same effect as Pliny. He says, that they 
are of an azure colour, 'dre, six cubits in length, and that they have two 
arms. He gives the same account as to their extraordinary strength. 
31 It is evident that there is some mistake in the MSS. either of Solinus 
or Pliny, as they both copied from the same source. Pliny speaks of 
branchiae," or gills, while Solinus mentions "brachia," or arms; the 
former, however, appears to be the preferable reading. Cuvier remarks 
that Ctesias, in his indica, c. 27, has given a similar account, but that the 
worm mentioned by him has two teeth, and not gills^ and that it only seizes 
oxen and camels, and not elephants. He states also, that an oil was ex- 
tracted from it, which set on fire everything that it touched. Cuvier 
observes, that in most of the MSS. of Pliny the worm is sixty cubits long, 
instead of six, as in some few, a length which was quite necessary to 
enable it to devour an elephant ; and he suggests that some large conger 
or niuraena may have originally given rise to the story. It is by no means 
improbable that some individuals of the boa or python tribe, in the vi- 
cinity of the river, may have been taken for vast fish or river worms. 
Among the German traditions, we find the name "worm " given to huge 
serpents, which are said to have spread devastation far and wide ; and in 
the north of England legends about similar " worms," are by no means 
uncommon : the story about the "Laidly Worm," in the county of Durham, 
for instance. 
