Trebius Niger informs us that whenever the loligo[1] is seen darting above the surface of the water, it portends a change of weather: that the xiphias,[2] or, in other words, the swordfish, has a sharp-pointed muzzle, with which it is able to pierce the sides of a ship and send it to the bottom: instances of which have been known near a place in Mauritania, known as Cotte, not far from the river Lixus.[3] He says, too, that the loligo sometimes darts above the surface, in such vast numbers, as to sink the ships upon which they fall.