ushils. 531 



3. The Ophidium or Gilthead. The body sword.like ; the 

 head blunt J the fin covering the gills with seven spines; the 

 opening of the mouth side-ways ; the fins of the back, the anus, 

 and the tail, all joining together; the most beautiful of all fishes, 

 covered over with green, gold, and silver; it is by sailors called 

 the dolphin, and gives chase to the flying-fish. 



attack and destroy almost every thing living that comes in their way. The 

 larger fish they penetrate with their long snout, few of whirh, when within 

 eight of them, can either withstand or avoid ils shock. There are but two 

 species, one of which is only found in the European seas ; the other, called 

 the Indian, or broad-fiuned sword-fish, inhabits the Brasilian and East 

 Indian seas, and also the Northern ocean. The body of a silvery bluish 

 white, except the upper parts of the back, and the head and tail, which are 

 of a deep brown. The skin is smooth, and without any appearance of scales. 

 From the long sharp-pointed process in front of the head, it would seem, on 

 a cursory view, to be allied to the European species ; but it differs trom this 

 ill having an extremely broad back fin, and two long sharp-pointed appen. 

 dagcs proceeding from the thorax. 



In 1725, when his Majesty's ship Leopard, after her return from the coast 

 of Guinea and the West Indies, was ordered to be cleaned and re-fitted for 

 the channel Eervice, in stripping off her sheathing the sliipwrights found in 

 her bottom, pointing in a direction from the stern towards the head, part 

 of the sword or snout of one of these fish. On the outside this was rough, 

 not unlike seal-skin ; and the end, where it was broken off, appeared like a 

 coarse kind of ivory. The fis^h, from the direction in which the sword lay, 

 is supposed to have followed the ship when under sail. It had penetrated 

 through her sheathing, wliich was an inch thick ; passed through three 

 inches of plank, and beyond that four inches into the timber. The force 

 requisite to effect this (since the vessed sailed in a direction from the fish,) 

 must have been excessively great, especially as no shock was felt by the 

 persons on board. The workmen on the spot, declared it impossible, with 

 a hammer of a quarter of a hundred weight, to drive an iron pin of the same 

 form atid size into that wood, and to the same depth, in less than nine 

 strokes, whilst this had been effected by only one. 



A letter « iis written to Sir Joseph Banks, as president of the Royal 

 Society, from tlie captain of an East India. man, about thirty years ago, ac- 

 companied witli an account of another instance of the amazing strength 

 which this fish occasionally exerts ; the bottom of this ship having been 

 pierced through iu such a manner, that the sword was completely embed- 

 ded or driven through its whole length, and the fish killed by the violence 

 of the effort. A part of the bottom of the vessel, with the sword embedded 

 in it, is noiv lodged in the British Museum. 



The sword-fish and the whale are said never to meet without coming to 

 battle ; and the former has the repute of being always the aggressor. .'lomc- 

 finies two of them join sgainst one whale, in which the combat is by no 

 me.ins equal. When the whale discovers the sword-fish darting upon hiiti, 

 he dives to the bottom, but is closely pursued by his antagonist, who com- 

 pels him again to rise to the aurfaci.-. 



2 y 2 



