THE SWORD-FISII. 



201 



whole length of net, cutting out, as with shears, the fish and 

 the net that holds them, and swallowing both together. 



The Saw-snouted Shark or Saw-fish (Squalus pristis), which 

 grows to fifteen feet in length, and the Sword-fish {Xvphias 



I, i i l ■■'. ,,,'■■ mi 'l « I ' m 



MBUj^Bg 



Saw-Fish. 



glacldus, platypterus), are furnished with peculiarly formidable 

 weapons. The long flat snout of the former is set with teeth on 



Sword-Fiah. 



both sides through its whole length, while the upper jaw of the 



latter terminates in a long sword-shaped snout. A twenty-feet 



long sword-fish once ran his sword with 



such violence into the keel of an East 



Indiaman, that it penetrated up to the 



root, and the fish itself was killed by the 



violence of the shock. The perforated 



beam, with the driven-in sword, are both 



preserved in the British Museum, and 



give a good idea of the prodigious power 



of the leviathans of ocean. 



While most fishes only rely upon their 

 well-armed jaws, their physical strength, 

 or their rapidity, for attack or defence, 

 some of them are provided with more 

 mysterious weapons, and stun their vic- 

 tims or their enemies by electrical discharges. 



Torpedo. 



