60 
SCABBARD FXSH. 
The Scabbard Fish has an extensive range, having been 
fonnd as well at the Cape of Good Hope as in the ^Mediterranean 
and the British Channel. But it is scarce everywhere; which 
may be accounted for by the supposition that it usually keeps 
near the bottom in very deep water, from which it does not 
wander, except under unusual circumstances. Hr. Pappe, in 
his account of the edible fishes of the Cape of Good Hope, 
says that not more than three had been taken there in the 
space of six years. Montagu was so fortunate as to obtain 
two examples on the coast of Devonshire; and one of them 
was so small as to suggest the opinion of its having been 
produced within a short distance of the place where it was 
found. It has been taken in Ireland once, and I possess a 
record of four specimens which have been met with in 
Cornwall; and one of them, from which our figure was taken, 
is preserved in the Museum of Natural History at Penzance. 
It was caught at about twenty miles from land, and in length 
measured five feet four inches; the head long, behind it a 
protuberance, followed by a depression, from which the back 
rises to the dorsal fin; the body thin and tapering, becoming 
narrow behind the termination of the dorsal fin. The eye is 
large; the head in front of it tapering to the jaws, which 
protrude; lower jaw longest; teeth projecting, curved, those 
in the upper jaw longest. Lateral line straight. Dorsal 
fin single, even, narrow, rising rather before the border of the 
gill-covers, and ending distinct from the tail. Anal fin com- 
paratively short, passing slightly nearer the tail than the 
dorsal. Tail small and forked. Pectoral fin of a remarkable 
shape, the shortest rays being above, and regularly increasing 
in length to the lowest, which is double the extent of the 
uppermost ray, thus appearing like a fin turned upside down. 
The vent is at the middle of the body. The colour above 
was greenish, with a tint of blue; below white: but it appears 
to vary in colour. Dr. Pappe says the colour of the back is 
faint steel blue on a silvery ground, the whole surface sprinkled 
with a silvery dust; to which Kisso adds that the surface 
reflects tints of golden, pink, and blue. It is said to swim 
with a very swift and waving motion; and Dr. Pappe adds, 
that he found its flesh fine and delicious. 
Risso reckons the fin rays as — of the dorsal two hundred, 
the anal twenty-two, pectoral twelve, and caudal thirty-six. 
