Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 002.djvu/674
Before proceeding to draw our conclusions concerning the true nature of this animal, or to shew the agreement in many remarkable particulars which exists between the accounts now quoted, and those given of another sea-monster by modern naturalists and navigators of unquestionable authority, it may not be amiss to strengthen the general tenor of these relations by the authority of Pliny. No doubt the writings of that author are a storehouse of ancient knowledge, in which every singular circumstance is recorded without much attention to the correctness of the sources from which it is derived. Still, however, when we observe so many general features of agreement in relations handed down to us by different authors unconnected with each other, and these relations again corroborated by popular traditions, and the statements of recent writers, who in all probability were ignorant of the observations of those who preceded them, we cannot help in some degree yielding our belief to facts, however exaggerated in many particulars, the truth of which is supported by such concurrent testimony.
The following passage seems to indicate that Pliny was aware of the existence of this creature.
"Maximum animal in Indico mari Pristis el Balæna est, in Gallico oceano Physeter, ingentis columnæ modo se attollens altiorque navium velis diluviem quandam eructans. In Gaditano oceano Arbor, in tantum vastis dispensa ramis, ut ex ea causa fretum nunquam intrasse credatur. Apparent et Rotæ appellatæ a similitudine, quaternis distinctæ radiis, modiolis eorum oculis duobus utrinque claudentibus Ionis."—Lib. ix. cap. iv.
The vast branches or rays, with which this animal is said to be provided, must immediately recal to mind the description of the long arms of the kraken formerly mentioned. The same author, in another part of his work,[1] describes a similar species of animal under the name of ozæna, so called on account of its diffusing a strong odour,[2] which, it is said, induces the fish to approach it. It is described as a species of polypus; a name, we may observe, frequently applied by the ancients to the sepia or cuttle-fish, of which we shall have occasion to speak in the sequel. According to the report of Lucius Lucullus, the proconsul of Bætica, this monstrous polypus used to rob the repositories of salt-fish on the coasts of Carteia; its head was equal in size to a cask capable of containing fifteen amphora; its arms measured thirty feet, and were so thick that a man could hardly clasp one of them, and were moreover covered with great suckers or fasteners, as large as basins that would hold four or five gallons each. There is here then a manifest agreement with the accounts already cited of the kraken, not only in the general tenor of the descriptions, but also in that remarkable property of being able to allure, within its reach, the smaller fishes, by means of some odorous exhalation.[3]
Having now, we trust, sufficiently established the existence of a monstrous sea animal, described by the ancients as a polypus, and known in more modern times by the name of kraken, we shall next endeavour to prove its identity with a certain species which has been recorded by some of the most authentic writers in the annals of science. We have already had occasion to remark, that the sepiæ or cuttle-fish are
- ↑ Lib. ix. cap. xxx.
- ↑ Immo vero potius quod suave quippiam oleat. Græci ideo vocant μαχίτιν hoc seculo Neapolitani Muschardinum. Jacobus Dalecampins. The account given by Pliny, in this particular, coincides closely with that formerly quoted of the Norway monster,—"mire omnibus marinis expetentibus odorem."
- ↑ The account given by Pliny is confirmed by the testimony of Fulgosus:—"Cum in Hispania piscatores, qui thynnos condiunt, singulis noctibus aliquid iis quæ jam paraverant, auferri animadverterent, et propterea diligentius rem observarent, non sine ingenti formidine, cum latratu suo canes ad rem inspiciendam invitarent, prospexerunt vastam terribilemque belluam ingenti spiritu, brachiisque canes a se abigentem ad quos defendendos accurentes, qui aderant, variis instructi armis, magno labore tandem feram confecerunt, cognoveruntque polypum esse, qui ejusmodi cibi avidissimus superioribus noctibus quod piscatores deesse sibi quærebantur, rapuerant. Hujus bellua caput immensum horrendumque fuit, quod Lucius Lucullus, qui illud inspexit, putavit quindecim amphorarum, quæ in nauticis rebus bottæ dicuntur, mensuram continere; brachia autem ingentia adeo, ut vix hominis complexu cingi possent, internodiaque crurum magnæ ollæ magnitudinem complere. Ejus autem reliquia in miraculi testimonium sepositæ fuere, septingentarumque librarum pondus excesserunt." Fulg. lib. i.