[23] MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF THE SwoRD-FisnEs. 311 
that town. It seems strange that so much stress has been laid upon 
this description and so much discussion has been held over the true 
classification of a form so evidently incorrectly described. 
Fossil forms. 
Agassiz, in his ‘ Poissons Fossils,” has described two species of Tet- 
rapturus: one, Tetrapturus priscus (vol. v, p. 91, tab. 31), from the London 
Clay, in the Isle of Shepley; the other, Tetraptwrus minor (vol. v, p. 91, 
tab. 60 a, figs. 9-13), from the Lewes Crag. The types of the former are 
in the Paris Museum (other similar specimens are stated to be preserved 
in the collections of Lord Enniskelien and Sir Philip Egerton); of the 
latter, in the collection of Mr. Mantell. 
He has also described the genus Celorhynchus, from fossil fish-beaks 
which appear to belong to members of the Sword-fish family. These 
are very long, slender, tapering more gently even than in the living 
forms, and are hollow throughout the entire length. There are two 
species, distinguished by name, but not described, viz, C. rectus and 
C. sinuatus, both from the London Clay of the Isle of Shepley. 
Four extinct species of Histiophorus have been described: H. priscus, 
Ag., from the London Clay, the beak of which is not known; H. minor, 
Ag., which has a deeply fluted beak; H. robustus, Leidy (Post-pliocene 
Foss. 8. Car. p. 119, Xiphias), which is from the Post-pliocene of Ashley 
River, South Carolina, with beak much depressed, the dentigerous sur- 
face a continuous plane, separated by a deep groove; H. antiquus (Leidy) 
Cope, from the New Jersey Eocene, has also a more depressed beak, with 
the dentary surfaces on one plane. 
At a meeting of the Boston Society, October 6, 1852, Professor Wy- 
man exhibited three fragments of the beak of a fossil [stiophorus, from 
the Tertiary deposits at Righmond, Va. 
Paleorhynchus, of the schists of Glaris, has a bill like Viphias ; also 
Hamorhynchus Des Hayes, first described by Agassiz as Histiophorus Des 
Hayes, a» Scombroid with elongated bill. 
D.—GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND MOVEMENTS. 
13.—EARLY ALLUSIONS TO THE SWORD-FISH IN EUROPE. 
The Sword-fish was known to Pliny, who writes: ‘The Sword-fish, 
called in Greeke Xiphias, that is to say in Latin Gladius, a sword, hath 
a beake or bill sharp pointed, wherewith he will drive through the sides 
and plankes of a ship, and bouge them so, that they shall sinke withall. 
The experience whereof is scene in the ocean, neare to a place in Mau- 
ritania called Gotta, which is not far from the river Lixos.”* 
Many other classical and medieval writers made curious allusions to 
the Sword-fish. A very good summary of their views is given by Bloch 
——» 
* Holland’s Pliny, ii, p. 428. 
