Latin Texts & Translations

Tunnies are among the most remarkable for their size; we have found one weighing as much as fifteen ^[Note] talents, the breadth of its tail being five cubits and a palm. ^[Note] In some of the rivers, also, there are fish of no less size, such, for instance, as the silurus ^[Note] of the Nile, the isox ^[Note] of the Rhenus, and the

attilus ^[Note] of the Padus, which, naturally of an inactive nature, sometimes grows so fat as to weigh a thousand pounds, and when taken with a hook, attached to a chain, requires a yoke of oxen to draw it ^[Note] on land. An extremely small fish, which is known as the clupea, ^[Note] attaches itself, with a wonderful tenacity, to a certain vein in the throat of the attilus, and destroys it by its bite. The silurus carries devastation with it wherever it goes, attacks every living creature, and often drags beneath the water horses as they swim. It is also remark-

able, that in the Mœnus, ^[Note] a river of Germany, a fish that bears ^[Note] a very strong resemblance 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. ^[Note] In the Borysthenes, 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 Ganges, a river of India, there is a fish found which they call the platanista; ^[Note] it has the muzzle and the tail of the dolphin, and measures sixteen cubits in length. Statius Sebosus says, a thing that is marvellous in no small degree, that in the same river there are fishes ^[Note] found, called worms; these have two gills, ^[Note] and are sixty cubits in length; they are

of an azure colour, and have received their name from their peculiar conformation. These fish, he says, are of such enormous strength, that with their teeth they seize hold of the trunks of elephants that come to drink, and so drag them into the water.