Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/133

Rh, and never fails to attract a great number of interested spectators; while it is at the same time one of the principal amusements of the more opulent inhabitants of Sicily, and one of the most important branches of the commerce of that beautiful island. Louis XIII., who was present at a tunny-capture of this kind at Marseilles, was often afterwards heard to declare that nothing in his whole progress through the southern parts of his dominions had so entertained him as the Madrague of Morgion.

2. Xiphiana. These have most of the characters of the preceding group, but the bones of the upper jaw are greatly lengthened, so as to form a long straight sword, with sharp edges. The gills are not divided into a multitude of filaments, resembling a comb, as in most other fishes, but consist of two large parallel laminæ on each side, with a netted surface. The ventral fins are either wanting, or consist of one or two inflexible bones. There is, properly speaking, only one dorsal, which is high and long; but the middle part becomes so worn away in the course of growth, that only the two extremities are left in old specimens, looking like two dorsals. Six species are enumerated in this group, constituting no fewer than five genera; they are all fishes of large size, familiarly known as Sword-fishes, and range the oceans and great inland seas, all round the globe, from the equator to the polar regions.

One species of this sub-family, the common Sword-fish, (Xiphias gladius, .) has been rather frequently caught on our own coasts; and there is an instance on record of a blow from the formidable weapon of one having been fatal to