and suggests " the S'lsar of the Indus, a crocodile, probably of the genus Gavial, which grows to a great size, is eaten, and has a gall bladder, still used to cure obstinate wounds and defluctions." Glaire suggests the sturgeon, but this is more suitable to Northern riv- ers. Pennant mentions the capture of one in the Esk weighing 464 pounds (British Zoology, iii, 127). See more in Bochart, Ilieroz. v, 14 ; Glaire, Introduction de VAncien. et du N. T. ii, 91 [ed. 3], Paris, li-62, and To- bit. 10. If Dr. F'rench and Mr. Skinner, in their Translation of the Psalms, are right in rendering Psa. civ, 26, "There swimmeth the nautilus and the whale," etc. (as if the sacred writer meant to indicate a small, though conspicuous, as well as a large aquatic animal, as equally the ol)ject of God's care), we have in the nT'IX, aniijoth', A. V. "ships," an unexpected addi- tion to our Scripture nomenclature of fishes, in what lord Byron calls —
"The tender Kautilus wlio steers his prow, The sea-born sailor of his Bhell canoe, The ocean Mab, the fairy of the sea." — The I4an(h
In their note the translators say, " The Nautilus. — This little creature floats at pleasure w\mx\ the surface of the sea. Its shell resemliles the hull of a ship, whence it has its name." Mr. Thrupp accepts the new rendering as having " much apparent probability'" (Jnlroduction to the Psalms, ii, 178). Anotlier recent expositor of the Psalms, J. Olshausen {Exeg. Ilandb. p. 402), remarks that " the introduction of ships amongst the living creatures of the sea has always presented an obstacle" to the understanding of the sentence. The paper nautilus (^Argonauta') frequents the Mediterra- nean. The verb 'y\z\Ty^, proceed, u-alk, very well de- scribes the stateh' progress of the nautilus as it floats upon the wave. We may add that it gives greater fit- ness to the 27th verse, which at present is hardh' com- patible with the 25th and 26th, owing to the intrusion of the clause, there go the ships. Eeplace this by the nautilus, and the coherence of the 27th verse with the two preceding is complete in all its terms. 11. Our last specific fish is rather suggested than named in Ezek. xxix, 4, where the prophet twice mentions "the fish of the rivers which cleave to the scales" [of the croco- dile]. This description seems to identify this fish with the Echeneis remora, so remarkable for the adhesive or sucking disc ■\\hich covers the upper part of the head, and enables it to adhere to the body of another fish, or to the bottom of a vessel. (Its fabulous pow- ers of being able even to arrest a vessel in her course are recorded by Pliny, IJist. Nat. xxxii, 1 ; it is men- tioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anhn. ii, 14, /;y^^.3'i'(~io>' n, o ku- \ovai TivtQ txivi'jiCu. ■ It is also mentioned by F'orskal as seen at Gidda, and by Hasselquist at Alexandria). The lump)-suclcer (Cyclopterus lumpus) is furnished with ventral fins which unite beneath the bod}- and form a concave disc, by which the fish can with ease adhere to stones or other bodies. Either in the remora, with its adhesive ajiparatus above, or in the lump-sucker with a similar appendage below, or in both, we have in all probabilit}' tlie prophet's fishes which cleave to the monster of the Nile.
The species cf fishes known to the Hebrews, or at least to those who dwelt on the coast. Mere probably verj' numerous, because the usual current of the ]Med- iterranean sets in, with a great depth of water, at the Straits of Gibraltar, and passes eastward on the Afri- can side until the shoals of the delta of the Nile begin to turn it towards the north ; it continues in that di- rection along the Syrian shores, and falls into a broken course only when turning westward on the Cyprian and Cretan coasts. Every spring, witli the sun's re- turn towards the north, innumerable troops of littoral species, having passed the winter in tlie oflings of Western Africa, return northward for spawning, or are impelled in that direction by other unknown laws. A small part only ascend along the Atlantic coast of
FISH
577
FISH