CHAPTER 



THE SEA RHINOCEROS 



*TTTHAT on earth's this?' Raimondo exclaimed. 



T T The most unfortunate-looking fish we had ever seen 

 was lying dead at this feet. We were standing around on the 

 deck of the Formica, looking at it and touching it in amaze- 

 ment. Raimondo had met it on a shallow in the channel of 

 Nocra. After a long chase he had caught the thirty-two pound 

 beast with a perfect thrust in the side and pulled it into the 

 boat. Raimondo assured us that, in his experience, very few 

 other fish had put up such an obstinate resistance. 



The fish was high, compressed and heavily proportioned, 

 with a compact fan tail. Its most singular characteristic was, 

 however, its head. In the middle of its high brow, a sort of 

 hump stuck out. This was as hard as rock although not bone, 

 whitish in colour and with some mysterious function. Its 

 small, piggy eye was high up, and its mouth, about eight 

 inches lower down, was a powerful, prominent parrot beak. 

 The scales of the fish were as broad as a man's hand and so 

 horny that it needed some effort to get a knife through them. 

 The overall colour of the fish was snake green with touches of 

 metallic blue. 



We looked at each other in bewilderment. What was it. 

 Neither Cecco, Gigi nor I remembered having seen the type 

 in or out of water or in text-books. It must be a cousin of the 



