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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)

Note 2225 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

John Bostock translation

Dalechamps says that this elephant is the same as the “rosmarus” of Olaus Magnus, B. xxxii. c. 11. It is remarked by Cuvier, that cetaceous animals have at all times received the names of those belonging to the land. The sea-ram, he thinks, may have been the great dolphin, which is called the “bootskopf,” and which has above the eye a white spot, curved in nearly a similar manner to the horn of a ram. The “elephant,” again, he suggests, may have been the Trichechus rosmarus of Linnæus, or the morse, which has large tusks projecting from its mouth, similar to those of the elephant. This animal, however, as he says, is confined to the northern seas, and does not appear ever to have come so far south as our coasts. Juba and Pausanias, however, speak of these horns of the sea-ram as being really teeth or tusks.

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