LIBER IX · CAPUT 4
THE LARGEST ANIMALS THAT ARE FOUND IN EACH OCEAN
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Maximum animal in Indico mari pristis et ballaena est, in Gallico oceano physeter, ingentis columnae modo se attollens altiorque navium velis diluviem quandam eructans, in Gaditano oceano arbor, in tantum vastis dispansa ramis, ut ex ea causa fretum numquam intrasse credatur. apparent et rotae appellatae a similitudine, quaternis distinctae hae radiis, modiolos earum oculis duobus utrimque claudentibus.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
The largest animals found in the Indian Sea are the pistrix and the balæna; while of the Gallic Ocean the physeter is the most bulky inhabitant, raising itself aloft like some vast column, and as it towers above the sails of ships, belching forth, as it were, a deluge of water. In the ocean of Gades there is a tree, with outspread branches so vast, that it is supposed that it is for that reason it has never yet entered the Straits. There are fish also found there which are called sea-wheels, in consequence of their singular conformation; they are divided by four spokes, the nave being guarded on every side by a couple of eyes.