36 NOTES ON CERTAIN FISHES, ETC., 



A pristes or serra [written above] saw fish'^ taken 

 about Lynne comonly mistaken for a [sha crossed out] 

 sword fish & answers the figure in Rondeletius. 



A sword fish or Xiphias or Gladius intangled in the 

 Herring netts at yarmouth agreable unto the Icon in 

 Johnstonus with a smooth sword not vnlike the Gladius 

 of Rondeletius about a yard & half long, no teeth [n 

 crossed out] eyes very remarkable enclosed in an hard 

 cartilaginous couercle about ye bignesse of a good apple, 

 ye vitreous humor plentifull the crystalline larger then 

 a nutmegge [cieare crossed out] remaining cleare sweet 

 & vntainted when the rest of the eye was vnder a deepe 

 corruption wch wee kept clear & limpid many moneths 

 vntill an hard frost split it & manifested the foliations 

 thereof. 



It is not vnusuall to take seuerall sorts of canis or 



Cetacea, which appears to be a further modification of Rondeletius's 

 figure ; here it has teeth, shown like those of the Sperm Whale, and 

 an extra dorsal-fin is added ; the number of lateral appendages is the 

 same, and a column of water proceeding from the blow-hole is falling 

 gracefully forward. It is worthy of notice that Rondeletius also figures 

 the Saw-fish (Pristis) with a blow-hole. 



^ In the " Transactions of the Linnean Society," ii., p. 273, is an essay 

 by Latham " On the various species of Sawfish," but he does not mention 

 any British locality. So far as I am aware Browne's is the only record of 

 the occurrence of this southern species in British waters, with the exception 

 of a note in Fleming's " British Animals," p. 164, where it is stated on the 

 authority of the late Dr. Walker's MS. "Adversaria" for 1769, that 

 PrUtis antiquoram is " found sometimes in Loch Long," but Fleming adds 

 that he has met with no other proof of its ever having visited the British 

 shores. Browne mentions in his eighth letter to Merrett that he sends 

 him a "figure in little" of a Pristis which he received of a Yarmouth 

 seaman, and is so precise in his statement that his fish was Prislis 

 serra (the Pristis antiquorum of Cuvier), that his record cannot be dis- 

 regarded. He specially guards against its being mistaken for the Sword- 

 fish (Xiphias gladius), which has been taken on several occasions in 

 uur waters, and of which he gives some interesting particulars. 



