84 SQUALID.E. 



Indeed, tlie wildest fancy of the poet, or tlic pencil of a Fuseli, could 

 scarcely conjure up a monster more disgusting, frightful, and repulsive 

 than a Hammer-fish of any considerable size. The strange position of the 

 large and goggle eyes adds much to the deformed appearance of the head ; 

 and its strength is, by the fishermen, reported to be quite in correspondence 

 with its frightfulness of aspect and its large and formidable teeth ; so that 

 alive, and in its native element, it were not easy to conceive a more ter- 

 rific monster. Fortunately it does not appear to quit its native depths or 

 to approach very near the shore ; for, although by no means uncommon 

 either in Madeira or elsewhere, I find no records of its fatally attacking man. 



Aristotle mentions the l^yaiva, only once ; and then so briefly and in 

 such company, that it is very doubtful whether he intends the fish so 

 called by the more recent writers. Speaking of fishes which have the gall- 

 bladder {yjiKri) adnate to the liver, he cites as examples certain Sharks 

 and Rays, " and of the long fishes, the Eel, the Pipe-fish (Si/ngnathus, 

 L.), and Zygsena" (zui rajv ^az^ajv 'iy/jiXvg %.cci ^ikovri za) ^yya/va).* 

 Had he meant our Hammer-fish, it would have been included rather in the 

 former member of the sentence. 



This fish appears to be, however, the Zyyaiva, of Oppian (Hal. A. 367, 

 and E. 37), and of his copyist ^Elian. The former terms it ^Xogupt^ 

 and piyeboii/y] : and enumerates it amongst other fierce, strong, and large 

 sea-monsters, inhabiting the deep and rarely approaching the shores, 

 -^lian, in a passage (lib. ix. cap. 49) borrowed from this of Oppian''s, 

 calls it f/jiyiarcc. The etymology of the name (from Zvyog a yoke or 

 balance, or sometimes a plumb-rule, whence, in Latin, this fish has been 

 called Libella, and by Willughby the Balance-fish) has been thought to 

 favour this identity, alluding to the form or transverse setting-on of the head. 



The later ichthyologists and voyagers have long been well acquainted 

 with this fish or others of the genus. In the Mediterranean, as in Ma- 

 deira, it appears not to be uncommon. Salviani and Rondelet relate that 

 it is called at Rome Ciambetta ; in other parts of Italy, Pesce Martello 

 and Balista ; at Marseilles, Peis Jouzioti, or the Jew-fish, from the re- 

 semblance of its head to a head-dress worn formerly by the Jews of 

 Provence ; and by the Spanish, Peis Limo, Limada^ and Toilandolo. 

 At Nice, Risso affirms that it is called Marteou. In Britain it appears to 

 be a mere straggler, of very rare occurrence ; a single individual only 

 having recently been captured on the Norfolk coast. All are agreed 

 in speaking of its flesh as hard, and disagreeable in smell and flavour, so 

 that it is only eaten by the lowest poor. 



In Madeira it is in summer one of the more common Sharks ; but is 

 not eaten, except when now and then imposed upon an ignorant or un- 

 wary customer. Oil is extracted, however, from the liver. The fishermen 



* Arist. Hist. B. /a. 7. 



