have always a sense of the Seas, and when the Sea goes forth, they will stand up like Bristles. The right Fin hath a soporiferous quality to make one sleep, if it be put under one’s head. They that fear Thunder, think those Tabernacles best to live in, that are made of Sea-Calves Skins, because onely this Creature in the Sea, as an Eagle in the Ayr is safe and secure from the Stroke of Thunder.... If the Sea be boisterous and rise, so doth the Sea Calfe’s hair: if the Sea be calm, the hair is smooth; and thus you may know the state of the Sea in a dead Skin. The Bothnick Marriners conjecture by their own Cloaths, that are made of these Skins, whether the Sea shall be calm, and their voyage prosperous, or they shall be in danger of Shipwreck.... These Creatures are so bold, that when they hear it thunder, and they see it clash and lighten, they are glad, and ascend upon the plain Mountains, as Frogs rejoyce against Rain.”
A very fine piece of casuistry is shown, in “the perplexity of those that eat the flesh of Sea-Calves in Lent,” and it seems to be finally settled that, according to “the men of a more clear judgment, rejecting many Reasons, brought on both sides, do say, and prove, that when the Sea-Calf brings forth on the shore, if the Beast driven by the Hunter, run into the Woods, men must forbear to eat of it in Lent, when flesh is forbidden; but if he run to the Waters, one may fairly eat thereof.”
Gesner, in giving this delineation of a Sea-Horse, openly says that it is the Classical horse, as used by Neptunus; but Olaus Magnus declares that “The Sea Horse, between Britany and Norway, is oft seen to have a head like a horse, and to neigh; but his feet and
hoof are cloven like to a Cow’s; and he feeds both on Land, and in the Sea. He is seldome taken, though he grow to be as big as an Ox. He hath a forked Tail like a Fish.
“The Sea-Mouse.
“The Sea-Mouse makes a hole in the Earth, and lays her Eggs there, and then covers them with Earth: on the 30th day she digs it open again, and brings her young to the Sea, first blind, and, afterwards, he comes to see.
“The Sea-Hare.
“The Sea-Hare is found to be of divers kinds in the Ocean, but so soon as he is caught, onely because he is suspected to be Venemous, how like so ever he is to a Hare, he is let loose again. He hath four Fins behind his Head, two whose motion is all the length of the fish, and they are long, like to a Hare’s ears, and two again, whose motion is from the back, to the depth of the fishes belly, wherewith he raiseth up the weight of his head. This Hare is formidable in the Sea; on the
Land he is found to be as timorous and fearful as a hare.”