460 THE SAW-FISH. 
It has a very wide range of locality, being found in almost all the warmer 
seas, and even in the cold regions near the pole. 
The snout of this fish is greatly prolonged, and flattened like a sword- 
blade. On either edge it bears a row of tooth-like projections, firmly 
imbedd+d in the bone, few, short, and wide apart at the base of the beak, 
but becoming larger and set closer together towards the point. The form of 
the sockets into which 
the teeth are received, 
and their rather en- 
larged termination, are 
conspicuously indicated 
on the surface of the 
saw-blade. The tip of 
the saw is covered with 
hard granular scales, 
The number of teeth is 
not the same in every 
SAW-FISH.—(Pristis antiquorum.) individual ; in a speci- 
men in my possession 
there are twenty-eight on each side of the saw. 
It is said that, like the sword-fish, this creature will attack the whale, 
thrusting its armed beak into the soft blubber-covered body of the huge 
cetacean, and avoiding, by its superior agility, the strokes of the tortured 
animal’s tail, any blow of which, if it succeeded in its aim, would crush the 
assailant to death. The Saw-fish does certainly use this weapon for the 
destruction of fish. Colonel Drayson has informed me that when lying 
becalmed off the Cape, he has more than once seen a Saw-fish come charging 
among a shoal of fishes, striking right and left with the serrated edges of 
the saw, and killing or disabling numbers of the fish by this process. 
In all the Saw-fishes the skin is covered with minute rounded or hexagonal 
scales, arranged like the stones of a mosaic. The temporal orifices are very 
large, and are set some 
distance behind the eyes. 
The mouth is on the 
under surface of the 
head, and is furnished 
with a crushing appara- 
tus, made exactly on the 
principle of the stone- 
crushing machines of 
‘\) the present day. 
y _ IN the true Rays, or 
Raide, the fore-part of 
the body is flattened 
and formed into a disc- 
like shape, by the con- 
junction of the breast- 
fins with the snout. 
Our first example of 
the Rays is the TorR- 
EYED TORPEDO.—( Zorpedo oculata.) PEDO, a fish long cele- 
brated for its power of 
emitting at will electrical shocks of considerable intensity. In conse- 
quence of this property, it is sometimes called the CRAMP-FISH, CRAMP 
Ray, ELECTRIC Ray, or NUMB-FISH, 
