we have now given an account of the 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 describe those which inhabit the seas, rivers, and standing waters.
among these there are many to be found that exceed in size any of the terrestrial animals; the evident cause of which is the superabundance of moisture with which they are supplied. very 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, many animals are to be found of monstrous form. hence it is that the vulgar notion may very possibly be true, that whatever is produced in any other department of nature, 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, is easy to be understood by all who will take the trouble to examine the grape-fish, the sword-fish, the saw-fish, and the cucumber-fish, which last so strongly resembles the real cucumber both in color and in 122 smell. we shall find the less reason then to be surprised to find that in so small an object as a shell-fish the head of the horse is to be seen protruding from the shell.
sea-elephant.—morunga proboscidea.
but the largest and most numerous of all these animals are those found in the indian seas; among which there are bal?n?, four jugera in extent, and the pristis, two hundred cubits long: here also are found cray-fish four cubits in length, and in the river ganges there are to be seen eels three hundred feet long.[125] but at sea, more especially about the time of the solstices, these monsters are to be seen. for then in these regions the whirlwinds blow, the rains descend, the hurricane comes rushing down, hurled from the mountain heights, while the sea is stirred up from the very bottom, and the monsters are driven from their depths and rolled upwards on the crest of the billow. once upon a time the fleet of alexander the great met with such vast multitudes of tunnies, that he was able to make head against them only by facing them in order of battle, just as he would have done an enemy’s fleet. had the ships not done this, but proceeded in a straggling manner, they could not possibly have made their escape. no noises, no sounds, no blows had any effect on these fish; by nothing short of the clash of battle were they to be terrified, and by nothing less than their utter destruction were they overpowered.
there is a large peninsula in the red sea, known by the name of cadara: as it projects into the deep it forms a vast gulf, which it took the fleet of king ptolemy twelve whole days and nights to traverse by dint of rowing, for not a 123 breath of wind was to be perceived. in the recesses of this becalmed spot more particularly, the sea-monsters attain so vast a size that they are quite unable to move. the commanders of the fleets of alexander the great have related that the gedrosi, who dwell upon the banks of the river arabis, are in the habit of making the doors of their houses[126] with the jaw-bones of fishes, and raftering the roofs with their bones, many of which were found as much as forty cubits in length. at this place, too, the sea-monsters, just like so many cattle, were in the habit of coming on shore, and, after feeding on the roots of shrubs, they would return; some of them, which had the heads of horses, asses, and bulls, found a pasture in the crops of grain.
the largest animals found in the indian sea are the pistrix and the bal?na; while of the gallic ocean the physeter, or blower, is the most bulky inhabitant, raising itself aloft like some vast column, and, as it towers above the sails of ships, belching forth, as it were, a deluge of water. in the ocean of gades there is a tree, with outspread branches so vast, that it is supposed that it is for that reason it has never yet entered the straits. there are fish also found there which are called sea-wheels, in consequence of their singular conformation; they are divided by four spokes, the nave being guarded on every side by a couple of eyes.
