12 Fish Stories 



ical horse of Neptune; but Magnus rises superior to this, 

 and gives the sea horse of Norway the head of a horse and 

 the cloven feet of a cow, a forked tail of a fish and the body 

 of a sea serpent ; and there is a good picture of it to prove 

 the accuracy of the description. 



One of the largest fishes of the German Ocean was the 

 Sea Pig, which Magnus describes, and figures. Here is a 

 description of a specimen found in 1537: "For it had a 

 Hog's head, and a quarter of a circle, like the Moon, in the 

 hinder part of its head, four feet like a Dragon's, two 

 eyes on both sides in his Loyns, and a third in his belly, in- 

 clining towards his Navel ; behind, he had a forked Tail, like 

 the other fish commonly." 



The same writer gives an excellent description of the 

 northern orca, or great killer, calling it the Ziphius : " He 

 hath as ugly a head as an Owl : his mouth is wondrous deep, 

 as a vast pit, whereby he terrifies, and drives away those 

 that look into it. His Eyes are horrible, his Back Wedge- 

 fashion, or elevated like a Sword; his snout is pointed." 



Thus far we have the orca, but he now evidently branches 

 off on the swordfish : " These often enter upon the Northern 

 Coasts as Thieves and hurtful Guests, that are always doing 

 mischief to ships they meet, by boring holes in them, and 

 sinking them." Magnus tells a story of the sawfish which 

 sawed open the bottom of a ship, sucked out the crew and 

 devoured them. Referring again to the orca, Magnus says : 

 " I, myself, saw one of the boats sunk by the water which 

 the animal, as it respired, showered down upon it." 



The confusion of orca, swordfish, sawfish and thresher 

 is common down to our day. The great killer frequently 

 attacks whales, which leap out of the water and plunge 

 furiously to escape from their tormentors. This we have 

 seen several times off the coasts of California and Mexico. 

 It seems to be the sole basis of the legend that swordfish 

 and the thresher-shark fight whales in company. "The 

 thrasher poundeth from above like a flail, and the swordfish 



