SWORDF1SH. 165 



that " in the Severn, near Worcester, a man bathing was 

 struck, and actually received his death-wound from a Sword- 

 fish. The fish was caught immediately afterwards, so that 

 the fact was ascertained beyond a doubt." In October 

 1834, a party of gentlemen in their pleasure-boat fishing in 

 the sea off the Essex coast, saw something bulky floating on 

 the water at a short distance. On coming up with it, they 

 found it to be a dead Swordfish, ten feet long, of which the 

 sword measured three feet : decomposition, however, was 

 going on so rapidly, that a skeleton of the bones, which were 

 entire, was the only portion that could be made available to 

 any useful purpose. 



Mr. Dillwyn, who has favoured me with many communi- 

 cations on Natural History, includes among them a notice of 

 a Swordfish exhibited at Brighton in 1796, which had been 

 caught off that coast ; and the Rev. Robert Holdsworth sent 

 me word that a Swordfish was taken in Bridgewater river in 

 July 1834. 



The Swordfish was first noticed in our seas by Sibbald ; 

 since which Dr. Leach, Mr. Pennant, Dr. Fleming, Dr. 

 Knox, and Dr. Grant have each had opportunities of exa- 

 mining specimens obtained in different parts of Scotland. 

 Still farther northward there is scarcely a writer on Ichthyo- 

 logy but mentions the Swordfish, several having been taken 

 in various parts of the Baltic. 



The Swordfish is supposed to entertain great hostility to 

 the Whale, and accounts of conflicts that have been wit- 

 nessed are recorded by mariners. Captain Crow, in a work 

 lately published, relates the following as having occurred on 

 a voyage to Memel : " One morning during a calm, when 

 near the Hebrides, all hands were called up at three A.M. to 

 witness a battle between several of the fish called Thrashers, 

 or Fox Sharks (Carchan'as wipes'), and some Swordfish on 

 one side, and an enormous whale on the other. It was in 



