CHAP. 15. (13.)—THOSE WHICH ARE COVERED WITH HAIR, OR HAVE NONE, AND HOW THEY BRING FORTH. SEA-CALVES, OR PHOCÆ.
Those aquatic animals which are covered with hair are viviparous, such, for instance, as the pristis, the balæna,[1] and the
sea-calf. This last brings forth its young on land, and, like the
sheep, produces an after-birth. In coupling, they adhere
after the manner of the canine species; the female sometimes produces even more than two, and rears her young at
the breast. She does not take them down to the sea until the
twelfth day, and after that time makes them become used to
it by degrees.[2] These animals are killed with the greatest dif-
ficulty, unless the head is cut off at once. They make a noise
which sounds like lowing, whence their name of "sea-calf."
They are susceptible, however, of training, and with their voice,
as well as by gestures, can be taught to salute the public; when
called by their name, they answer with a discordant kind of
grunt.[3] No animal has a deeper sleep[4] than this; on dry
land it creeps along as though on feet, by the aid of what it
uses as fins when in the sea. Its skin, even when separated from the body, is said to retain a certain sensitive sympathy with the sea, and at the reflux[5] of the tide, the hair on
it always rises upright: in addition to which, it is said that
there is in the right fin a certain soporiferous influence, and
that, if placed under the head, it induces sleep.
(14.) There are only two animals without hair that are
viviparous, the dolphin and the viper.[6]
1. Cuvier remarks, how very inappropriately Pliny places the pristis
(probably the saw-fish) and the balæna among the animals that are
covered with hair. Aristotle, he says, in his Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 12,
goes so far as to say that the pristis and the ox-fish (a kind of ray or
thorn-back, probably) bring forth their young like the balæna and the
dolphin, but does not go beyond that. Cuvier says also, that what is here
stated of the sea-calf is in general correct, except the statements as to the
properties of its skin and its right fin, the stories relative to which are, of
course, neither more nor less than fabulous.
2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 11, states to the like effect.
3. "Fremitu." From their lowing noise, the French have also called
these animals "veaux de mer," and we call them "sea-calvs." Ælian,
Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 56, and Diodorus Siculus, B. iii., also speak of training the sea-calf. Hardouin says that Lopez de Gomara, one of the more
recent writers on Mexico, in his day, had given an account of an Indian
sea-calf, or manati, as it was called by the natives, that had become quite
tame, and answered readily to its name; and that, although not very large,
it was able to bear ten men on its back. He also tells us of a much more
extraordinary one, which Aldrovandus says he himself had seen at Bologna, which would give a cheer (vocem ederet) for the Christian princes when
asked, but would refuse to do so for the Turks; just, Hardouin says, as
we see dogs bark, and monkeys grin and jump, at the mention of a particular name.
4. Oppian, Haliut. B. i. 1. 408, mentions this fact, and Juvenal, Sat.
iii. 1. 238, alludes to it: "Would break the slumbers of Drusus and of
sea-calves."
5. This assertion, though untrue, no doubt, as to sympathy with the tides,
is in some degree supported by the statement of Rondelet, B. xvi. c. 6,
who says that he had often perceived changes in the wind and weather
prognosticated by the hide of this animal; for that when a south wind
was about to blow, the hair would stand erect, while when a north wind
was on the point of arising, it would lie so flat that you would hardly
know that there was any hair on the surface.
6. Hardouin remarks, that Pliny classes the viper probably among the
aquatic animals, either because it was said to couple with the muræna, or
else because it has a womb not unlike that of the cartilaginous fishes.