292 THE SA W-FlJSff. 



bait, and the small fishes approaching to examine or seize 

 them are soon conveyed to the capacious jaws of the angler. 

 Nature has added to this provision for obtaining food, inas- 

 much as a filament shooting up close to the upper lip of the 

 fish carries upon its extremity a little membrane or flag, of 

 brilliant metallic lustre, which, it is supposed, the angler 

 uses as a means of alluring its prey ; and the relative posi- 

 tion of the flag, the eye, and the mouth, favor such a pur- 

 pose. The upper part of the body is brown, inclining to 

 dusky, and the lower parts are white. The sea-frog is com- 

 mon in the Northern Ocean and the Mediterranean ; it is 

 also taken sometimes on the British coasts. 



In the chapter on the " Monarchs of the Ocean." we 

 have alluded to the Saw-fish and the Sword-fish as formid- 

 able enemies to the whale ; but is not merely on their fel- 

 low-inhabitants of the deep that these powerful fishes exer- 

 cise their aggressive propensities. Some singular instances 

 are related of their attacking even the "wooden walls " that 

 glide tranquilly through their watery domain. 

 Captain Wilson, of the Halifax packet, states: 

 "Being in the Gulf of Paria, in the ship's cutter, I fell 

 in with a Spanish canoe, manned by two men, then in great 

 distress, who requested me to save their lines and canoe, 

 with which request I immediately complied, and going 

 alongside for that purpose, I discovered that they had got 

 a large saw-fish entangled in their turtle-net, which was 

 towing them out to sea, and but for my assistance they must 

 have lost either their canoe or their net, or perhaps both, 

 which were their only means of subsistence. Having only 

 two boys with me at the time in the boat, I desired them 

 to cut the fish away, which they refused to do. I then took 

 the bight of the net from them, and with the joint endeav- 

 ors of themselves and my boat's crew, Ave succeeded in 

 hauling up the net, and to our astonishment, after great 

 exertions, we raised the "saw " of the fish about eight feet 



