PORBEAGLE. 43 



pilchards and herrings, and other small fishes that then abound. 

 Risso represents it as swift and eager after prey, and certainly 

 it is not less fierce than other Sharks; and I have been in- 

 formed of an instance, where in the prospect of being taken, 

 it sprung at a fisherman, and tore a piece out of his clothing. 

 The teeth, which present a formidable array of spears, are 

 less formed for cutting than for seizing and holding its prey; 

 which therefore it appears to swallow whole. I have found 

 the remains of cartilaginous fishes and cuttles (SepioeJ in their 

 stomachs; and in one instance full-grown hakes. 



According to Risso it is an article of food in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and he goes so far as to say that as such it is much 

 esteemed. This is a piece of luxury to which our fishermen 

 and the public have not yet attained; and consequently with 

 us it is only employed as manure. 



The spiral valve in the entrails of this fish is strongly marked. 



The example described was four feet in length, and two feet 

 in circumference just before the pectoral fins; the appearance, 

 therefore, solid and heavy, and explaining the meaning of its 

 name the hog-hound. The snout prominent and round, thickly 

 covered with small apertures; the nostrils single, small, and 

 not lobed; mouth large, armed with rows of sharp prominent 

 teeth, each tooth with a smaller process at the root on each 

 side, the rows of teeth varying according to size, but in the 

 fish described only two uncovered. Eye prominent, no spir- 

 acle; the gill openings reaching up the side of the body, 

 their extent increasing from the first anteriorly. Body round, 

 depressed nearer the tail, with a notch above and below at the 

 root of that organ, a prominent ridge at the side of the body 

 near the tail, and a slight one below it on the tail itself. First 

 dorsal fin elevated, and triangular; the second dorsal and anal 

 small and opposite each other; upper lobe of the tail without 

 a notch in some examples; but it extends beyond the lower, 

 contrary to the definition of Rafinesque. The skin slightly rough. 

 Colour black on the back and fins, lighter on the sides, and 

 white below. 



I have been informed of an example that weighed eight 

 hundred pounds, and another of large size will presently be 

 described. This latter had the remarkable singularity of being 

 much disfigured by a large lobulated cancerous tumour in its 



