APPENDIX, N® II. 437 
closes the description. On a square plinth of marble, an 
ANIMAL rested, whicli at first sight might have been taken 
for an Ox, only that its tail was too short, and it wanted 
a proper depth of throat, and its hoofs were not divided. 
Another ANIMAL, whose whole body was covered with 
rough scales, which even in brass were formidable, had 
seized upon the former animal with his jaws, and nearly 
throttled him. There were different opinions concerning 
these animals, which I shall not attempt to reconcile. 
Some imagined them to represent the Basilisk and the 
Asp : others, the Crocodile and the River-horse of the Kile. 
I shall content myself with describing the extraordinary con- 
test beteen them; how both were mutually injuring and 
injured ; were destroying and destroyed 3 were struggling 
for the victory ; were conquering and conquered. The 
body of one animal was swollen from the head to the feet, 
and appeared greener than the colour of the frog ; the 
lightning of his eye was quenched, and his vital powers 
seemed failing fast, so that the beholders might have ima- 
gined him already dead, only that his feet still supported 
and kept his body upright. The other animal, which was 
held fast in the jaws of its adversary, was moving his tail 
with difficulty; and, extending his mouth, was in vain 
struggling to escape from the deadly gripe. Thus each was 
inflicting death upon the other ; the struggle was the 
same, and the victory terminated in the common destruction 
of both. These examples of mutual destruction I have been 
led to mention, not only from the sculptured representation 
of them, and from their taking place among fierce and 
savage beasts, but because this mutual carnage is not unfre- 
•luent among the nations which have waged war against us 
