X1PH1AS. 313 



Very recently this same gentleman procured a 

 magnificent one, the head of which, with its sword, 

 upwards of four feet long, was neatly prepared 

 by Dr Yale, of Holmes's Hole, by whom it was 

 forwarded to Boston. There are times when they 

 appear unusually numerous ; and then again, sev- 

 eral weeks perhaps will pass by before they are 

 seen again. 



On a calm sunny day, during the last summer, 

 as a pilot was leisurely rowing his little skiff 

 over the glassy bosom of the gently swelling waves, 

 he was suddenly roused from his seat by the 

 plunge of a sword fish, thrusting his long spear 

 more than three feet up through the bottom of 

 the slender bark ; when the pilot, with that pres- 

 ence of mind for which the whole fraternity are 

 distinguished, broke it off on a level with the floor, 

 by the butt of an oar, before the submarine assas- 

 sin had time to withdraw his fearfully offensive 

 weapon. 



but of real utility to others. The truth of the observation is 

 finely illustrated in the following extract. 



" In the garden grounds along the river Sitter, in the Can- 

 ton of Appenzell, Switzerland, such numbers of snails are kept 

 for fattening, that the noise of their dentriulatedjaws, are heard 

 several paces. Sometime before Lent, they are packed in 

 casks, and sent to the convents of Suabia, Bavaria, Austria, 

 even as far as Vienna, where they are sold as luxuries. By 

 this traffic, some have acquired Handsome fortunes." 



