CAPTURE OF AN IMMENSE SAW- FISH. 519 



Capture of an immense Saw-Jish at Trinidad. — Being in 

 the Gulf of Paria in the ship's cutter, on the 15th of April, 

 1839, T fell in with a Spanish canoe, manned by two men, 

 then in great distress, who requested me to save their lives 

 and canoe, with which request I immediately complied ; and 

 going alongside for that purpose, I discovered that they had 

 got a large saw-fish entangled in their turtle-net, which was 

 towing them out to sea, and but for my assistance they must 

 have lost either their canoe or their net, or perhaps both, which 

 were their only means of subsistence. Having only two boys 

 with me in the boat at the time, I desired them to cut the 

 fish away, which they refused to do ; I then took the bight of 

 the net from them, and with the joint endeavours of themselves 

 and my boat's crew, we succeeded in hauling up the net, and 

 to our astonishment, after great exertions, we raised the saw 

 of the fish about eight feet above the surface of the sea. It 

 was a fortunate circumstance that the fish came up with the 

 belly towards the boat, or it would have cut the boat in two. 



I had abandoned all idea of taking the fish, until, by great 

 good luck, it made towards the land, when T made another at- 

 tempt, and having about fifty fathom of 2-| inch rope in the 

 boat, we succeeded in making a running bowline knot round 

 the saw of the fish, and this we fortunately made fast on shore, 

 at Point-a-Pierre : when the fish found itself secured it plun- 

 ged so violently that I could not prevail on any one to go near 

 it, the appearance it presented was truly awful. I immedi- 

 ately went alongside the 'Lima' packet, Capt. Singleton, and 

 got the assistance of all his ship's crew, (mine being away for 

 sugar). By the time they arrived the fish was rather less vi- 

 olent ; we hauled upon the net again, in which it was still 

 entangled, and got another fifty fathoms of line made fast to 

 the saw, and attempted to haul it towards the shore, but al- 

 though mustering thirty hands, we could not move it an inch. 

 By this time the negroes belonging to Mr. Dan glad's estate 

 came flocking to our assistance, making, together with the 

 Spaniards, about one hundred in number ; we then hauled on 

 both ropes for nearly the whole of the day, before the fish be- 

 came exhausted. On landing it on the beach we found, to 

 our great surprise, that it was considerably longer than the 

 cutter, which measured 17 feet. On endeavouring to raise 

 the fish it became most desperate, sweeping with its saw from 

 side to side, so that we were compelled to get strong guy ropes 

 to prevent it from cutting us to pieces. After that one of the 

 Spaniards got on its back, and at great risk cut through the 

 joint of the tail, when animation was completely suspended : 

 it was then measured, and found to be 22 feet long and 8 feet 



