THE SAW-FISH. 537 



seven pounds. There is also a large amount of oil in the Shark, which 

 is thought rather valuable, so that in Ceylon and other places a regular 

 trade in this commodity is carried on. 



The fins are very rich in gelatine, and in China are, as is said, em- 

 ployed largely in the manufacture of that gelatinous soup in which the 

 soul of a Chinese epicure delights, and of which the turtle S(^p of our 

 metropolis is thought by Chinese judges to be a faint penumbra or 

 distant imitation. The flesh is eaten by the natives of many Pacific 

 islands, and in some places the liver is looked upon as a royal luxury, 

 being hung on boards in the sun until all the contained oil has drained 

 away, and then carefully wrapped up in leaves and preserved as a del- 

 icacy. 



The color of the White S]iark is ashen brown above and white 

 below. 



We now arrive at the Rays. The first family of these fishes is 

 evidently intermediate between the sharks and the skates, and is in 

 many respects a very interesting and remarkable group of fishes. The 

 common Saw-fish, so well known from the singular development of 

 the snout, is a good example of this family. 



It has a very wide range of locality, being found in almost all the 

 warmer seas, and even in the cold regions near the pole. 



The snout of this fish is greatly prolonged, and flattened like a sword- 

 blade. On either edge it bears a row of tooth-like projections, firmly 

 imbedded in the bone, few, short, and wide apart at the base of the 

 beak, but becoming larger and set closer together toward the point. 

 The form of the sockets into which the teeth are received, and their 

 rather enlarged termination, are conspicuously indicated on the surface 

 of the saw-blade. The tip of the saw is covered with hard granular 

 scales. The number of teeth is not the same in every individual ; in 

 a specimen in my possession there are twenty-eight on each side of the 

 saw. 



It is said that, like the sword-fish, this creature will attack the whale, 

 thrusting its armed beak into the soft blubber-covered body of the huge 

 cetacean, and avoiding, by its superior agility, the strokes of the tor- 

 tured animal's tail, any blow of which, if it succeeded in its aim, would 

 crush the assailant to death. The Saw-fish does certainly use this 

 weapon for the destruction of fish. Colonel Drayson has informed 

 me that when lying becalmed off* the Cape he has more than once seen 

 a Saw-fish come charging among a shoal of fishes, striking right and 

 left with the serrated edges of the saw, and killing or disabling numbers 

 of the fish by this process. 



In all the Saw-fishes the skin is covered with minute rounded or 

 hexagonal scales, arranged like the stones of a mosaic. The temporal 

 orifices are very large, and are set some distance behind the eyes. The 



