60 SCABBARD FISH. 



The Scabbard Fish has an extensive range, having been 

 found as well at the Cape of Good Hope as in the Mediterranean 

 and the British Channel. But it is scarce everywhere; which 

 may be accounted for by the supposition that it usually keeps 

 near the bottom in very deep water, from which it does not 

 wander, except under unusual circumstances. Dr. Pappe, in 

 his account of the edible fishes of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 says that not more than three had been taken there in the 

 space of six years. Montagu was so fortunate as to obtain 

 two examples on the coast of Devonshire; and one of them 

 was so small as to suggest the opinion of its having been 

 produced within a short distance of the place where it was 

 found. It has been taken in Ireland once, and I possess a 

 record of four specimens which have been met with in 

 Cornwall; and one of them, from which our figure was taken, 

 is preserved in the Museum of Natural History at Penzance. 

 It was caught at about twenty miles from land, and in length 

 measured five feet four inches; the head long, behind it a 

 protuberance, followed by a depression, from which the back 

 rises to the dorsal fin; the body thin and tapering, becoming 

 narrow behind the termination of the dorsal fin. The eye is 

 large; the head in front of it tapering to the jaws, which 

 protrude; lower jaw longest; teeth projecting, curved, those 

 in the upper jaw longest. Lateral line straight. Dorsal 

 fin single, even, narrow, rising rather before the border of the 

 gill-covers, and ending distinct from the tail. Anal fin com- 

 paratively short, passing slightly nearer the tail than the 

 dorsal. Tail small and forked. Pectoral fin of a remarkable 

 shape, the shortest rays being above, and regularly increasing 

 in length to the lowest, which is double the extent of the 

 uppermost ray, thus appearing like a fin turned upside down. 

 The vent is at the middle of the body. The colour above 

 was greenish, with a tint of blue; below white: but it appears 

 to vary in colour. Dr. Pappe says the colour of the back is 

 faint steel blue on a silvery ground, the whole surface sprinkled 

 with a silvery dust; to which Risso adds that the surface 

 reflects tints of golden, pink, and blue. It is said to swim 

 with a very swift and waving motion; and Dr. Pappe adds, 

 that he found its flesh fine and delicious. 



llisso reckons the fin rays as — of the dorsal two hundred, 

 the anal twenty- two, pectoral twelve, and caudal thirty-six. 



