Chap. 21 Why Fishes Leap Above the Surface of the Water
There is a little animal,2364 in appearance like a scorpion, and of the size of a spider.2365 This creature, by means of its sting, attaches itself below the fin to the tunny and the fish known as the sword-fish2366 and which often exceeds the dolphin in magnitude, and causes it such excruciating pain, that it will often leap on board of a ship even. Fish will also do the same at other times, when in dread of the violence of other fish, and mullets more especially, which are of such extraordinary swiftness, that they will sometimes leap over a ship, if lying crosswise.