Class IV. SICILIAN SWORD FISH. 219 



Sharp as a sword the Xipkias does appear ; 

 And crowds of flying Tunnies struck with fear. 



It grows to a very large size; the head of Descrip- 

 one, with the pectoral fins, found on the shore 

 near Laagharn, in Caermarthemhire, alone 

 weighing seventy-five pounds : the snout was 

 three feet long, rough, and hard, but not hard 

 enough to penetrate ships and sink them, as 

 Pliny pretends.* 



The snout is the upper jaw, produced to a 

 great length, and has some resemblance to a 

 sword, from whence the name; it is compressed 

 at the top and bottom, and sharp at the point ; 

 the under jaw is four times as short as the 

 upper, but likewise sharp pointed ; the mouth 

 is destitute of teeth. The body is slender, 

 thickest near the head, and growing less and 

 less as it approaches the tail ; the skin is rough, 

 but very thin ; the color of the back is dusky, 

 of the belly silvery; the dorsal fin begins a 

 little above the gills, and extends almost to the 

 tail ; it is highest at the beginning and the end, 

 but very low in the middle ; a little above the 

 tail, on each side, the skin rises and forms two 

 triangular protuberances, not unlike the spu- 



* Xiphiam, id est, Gladium, rostra mucronato esse, ah hoc 

 naves perfossas mergiin oceano. Plin. Lib. xxxii. c. 11. 



