SWORDFISH. 149 



found to have driven its sword through the douole copper 

 sheathing of a ship, and then through a plank of the thickness 

 of two inches and a half, deep into one of the ship's timbers, 

 where it broke. We quote another instance, in which the 

 editor speaks in his own person: "We have had the pleasure 

 of inspecting a piece of wood cut out of one of the fore 

 planks of a vessel, (the Priscilla, from Pernambuco, now in the 

 port of Liverpool,) through which was struck about eighteen 

 inches of the bony weapon of the Swordfish. The force with 

 which it must have been driven in affords a striking exempli- 

 fication of the power and ferocity of the fish. The Priscilla is 

 quite a new vessel. Captain Taylor, her commander, states 

 that when near the Azores, as he was walking the quarter-deck 

 at night, a shock was felt which brought all hands from below, 

 under the impression that the ship had touched upon some 

 rock. This was, no doubt, the time when the occurrence took 

 place." 



"N'or bnrnislied steel, nor plates of flaming brass. 

 In solid work the fishy snout surpass." 



Oppian. 



The flesh of the Swordfish is thought delicious, and Linnaeus, 

 who met with it in Norway, compared it in taste to the 

 Salmon. To obtain it in the Mediterranean there is a regular 

 fishery, which has been carried on from ancient times, and 

 which, with some variation, is described in the poem of 

 Oppian, B. iii. A man, who answers to the huer already 

 mentioned in our account of the Tunny fishery, is stationed in 

 some elevated place, where he can discern the course and 

 motions of the expected fish, and from whence he can com- 

 municate with the fishermen afloat, whose course is directed 

 by his signals. The excitement of the chase is highly amusing, 

 and much skill is shewn in use of the dart with which the 

 flesh is struck, and which is fastened to a line that is 

 suflfered to run out, but is tightened to restrain the exertions of 

 the fish. What follows is a counterpart, on a small scale, of 

 what is practised in the Whale fishery; and the time and 

 patience engaged in the efforts to obtain the prize are spoken 

 of as not a little considerable. 



Oppian describes another and a very ingenious practice, that 



