THE SWORD-FISII. 201 
whole length of net, cutting out, as with shears, the fish and 
the net that holds them, and swallowing both together. 
The Saw-snouted Shark or Saw-fish (Squalus pristis), which 
grows to fifteen feet in length, and the Sword-fish (Xephias 
Saw-Fish. 
gladius, platypterus), are furnished with peculiarly formidable 
weapons. ‘The long flat snout of the former is set with teeth on 
Sword-Fish. 
both sides through its whole length, while the upper jaw of the 
latter terminates in a long sword-shaped snout. A twenty-feet 
long sword-fish once ran his sword with 
such violence into the keel of an East 
Indiaman, that it penetrated up to the 
root, and the fish itself was killed by the 
violence of the shock. The perforated 
beam, with the driven-in sword, are both 
preserved in the British Museum, and 
give a good idea of the prodigious power 
of the leviathans of ocean. 
While most fishes only rely upon their 
well-armed jaws, their physical strength, 
or their rapidity, for attack or defence, 
some of them are provided with more 
mysterious weapons, and stun their vic- 
tims or their enemies by electrical discharges. 
oo 3 
0, 10) 
