SCABBARD-FISH. 177 



lieving it to be then entirely unknown to naturalists ; but 

 this fish appears to be an inhabitant of the Mediterranean 

 as well as the European seas, and has been taken occa- 

 sionally in several different parts of southern and western 

 Europe. 



One specimen taken at the Cape of Good Hope is de- 

 scribed and figured by Euphrasen, in the new Memoirs of 

 Stockholm for 1788, t. ix. p. 48, pi. 9, fig. 2 ; and other 

 descriptions and figures were equally known. 



Four examples of this fish have occurred on the southern 

 shores of England : two fortunately came into the posses- 

 sion of Colonel Montagu, and are still preserved in the 

 British Museum. In the summer of 1787, a specimen 

 came ashore near Dawlish ; and notes with a drawing of this 

 fish were sent by Mr. Matthew Martin to his friend and 

 correspondent John Walcott, Esq. for his then projected 

 work on British Fishes. A fourth example was received a 

 few years back by the Linnean Society. 



Colonel Montagu's first and largest specimen measured 

 five feet six inches in length ; the depth at the gills four 

 and a half inches ; the weight, without the intestines, six 

 pounds one ounce. This fish was taken in Salcombe har- 

 bour, on the coast of South Devon, in June 1808. It 

 was swimming with astonishing velocity, with its head 

 above water, — to use the fisherman's expression, "going 

 as swift as a bird," — and was killed by a blow of an oar. 



" The specimen was considered so rare, that a public 

 show was made of it at Kingsbridge, where, in one day a 

 guinea was taken for its exhibition, at one penny each per- 

 son. It was embowelled when I first saw it. In preparing 

 it, I observed within the skin, on the abdominal parts, a 

 great many small ascarides, pointed at each end, and of a 

 whitish colour : they were all coiled up in a spiral manner. 



VOL. I. N 



