On a Siiecimen o/Pristis cirrhatus. 823 



among us lie would find his craft much as he left it ; but 

 even he may be looked upon as a modern comparatively, for 

 remains of leathern articles are found in the oldest ruins of 

 Egypt and Assyria : indeed, the art may have been practised 

 long ere human records existed, and seems to have imme- 

 diately followed the earliest use of skins by the first of the 

 human race. 



XVII. 



On a Sj)ecimen of Pristis cirrhatus, hy J. E. Bicheno, 

 Esq., F.E.S., &c. {Read Uth June, 1850.] 



New Town, 8th June, 1850. 



Dear Sir, — Last week an old fisherman brought me a 

 fine specimen of a saw-fish, caught in the Derwent. It 

 turned out to be the Pristis cirrhatus, — a rare and curious 

 species, confined to the Australian seas, and first described 

 by Dr. Latham in the year 1793, in the 2nd volume of the 

 Linnsean Transactions, page 281, plates 26 and 27, with 

 this specific character — Pristis rostro cirrato spinis 

 longiorihus ; hreviorihus inter mediis. — Habitat in Nova 

 Hollandid — In hac specie, he says, rostrum sjoinis circiter 

 20 acutis, modice incurvis, muritum ; hreviorihus 3 — 6 

 interjectis ad latera suhtus utrinque cir7~us elongatiis 

 flexilis. 



The subject from which Latham described was a male 

 fish, having a total length of about 40 inches. 



