Natural History. -^Zoology. 411 
it from the genus Eradypus^ and described it as a distinct ge- 
nus under the name Prochilus, from its remarkably moveable 
and extensile lip. It is also mentioned by Cuvier; but he he- 
sitates as to its true place in the system, and remarks, that the 
form of its teetli does not agree with those of the sloth tribe. 
Very lately, Tiedemann, the celebrated comparative anatomist^ 
had an opportunity of examining a live specimen of this curious 
animal, and was thus enabled to refer it to its true place in the 
system. Pie finds that it is provided with cutting teeth, and 
belongs not to the sloth, but to the bear or ursus tribe. The 
following is his description, Ursus longirostris : naso elongato; 
labiis prqtensilibus ; corpore pilis longis, densis et nigris tecto : 
collo macula alba cordiforme ornato.” According to Dr Francis 
Hamilton, it lives in holes which it digs, and subsists on fruits,, 
sorgho, and white ants. 
31. Account of a vessel struck with a Sivord-fisli . — A vessel 
which arrived at Liverpool about a year ago, (the Kitty, Captain 
Hodson,) from a voyage to the coast of Africa, being put into 
the graving-dock for the purpose of receiving some repairs, was 
found to be perforated through the how^ by a hard bony substance. 
This substance, probably a part of the rostrum of a Xiphias or 
Sword-fish, had penetrated through a solid part of the vessel,, 
where the thickness in timber and planks was 12 inches of sound 
oak. The shattered end of the bone was visible on the out- 
side, and the smaller extremity appeared within the ceiling. 
The latter part being observed by a carpenter, who mistook it 
for a trenail, he struck at it a blow with a mallet, by which a 
portion of the tip was broken off. Finding it to be something 
curious, he pointed it out to Messrs J. and 11. Fisher, shipbuild- 
ers, the owners of the vessel, who caused it to be taken out. 
The position of the bone was at the distance of four feet, hori- 
zontally from the stem, and two feet below the surface of the 
water when the vessel was afloat. Hence, it appeared, that 
when the ship had been in rapid progress through the water, 
she had been met and struck by a sword-fish advancing in an 
opposite direction, by the shock of which, or by the action of 
the water forced past the body of the animal by the vessel's 
progress, the snout had been broken off and detached. The 
blow, though it must have been singularly forcible, was not ob- 
