Sizes 
Snout 
328 SWORD FISH. Clif Iv, 
But this ufe of charmed words is not confined to 
Sicily ; the Irifh have their fong at the taking of the 
razor fhell; and the Corni/h theirs, at the taking of 
the whiftle fith. 
The {word fith is faid to be very voracious, and 
that it is a great enemy to the Tunny, who (accord- 
ing to Belon) are as much terrified with it as fheep 
are at the fight of a wolf. | 
Ac durus Xiphias, i&u non mitior enfis ; 
Et pavidi magno fugientes agmine Thunni. 
Ovid. Halieut. 97. 
Sharp as a fword the Xiphias does appear ; 
And crowds of flying Tumnies ftruck with fear. 
It grows to a very large fize ; the head of one, 
with the pectoral fins, found on the fhore near 
Laugharn, in Caermarthenfoire, alone weighing {e- 
venty-five pounds: the fnout was three feet long, 
rough, and hard, but not hard enough to penetrate 
fhips and fink them, as Pémy pretends*. 
The fnout is the upper jaw, produced to a great 
length, and has fome refemblance to a {fword, from 
whence the name. It is compreffed at the top and 
bottom, and fharp at the point. The under jaw is 
four times as fhort as the upper, but likewife fharp 
pointed. The mouth is deftitute of teeth. 
The body is flender, thickeft near the head, and 
growing lefs and lefs as it approaches the tail. 
The fkin is rough, but very thin: the color of 
the back is dufky, of the belly filvery. 
* Xiphiam, 7d ef, Gladium, rofro mucronato eff, ab hoc naves 
ser foffas mergi in oceauo, Plin. libs XXXi. + 11 
The 
