The skippers ( Scomberesox saurus) can leap out of Ihe water to elude an enemy but only 

 for very short distances. Above all, they are rapid swimmers. They are closely related to 

 garfishes and have a long body, ending in a pointed beak. Behind the dorsal and anal fins there 

 are finlets very like those of mackerel. Skippers live in close-packed shoals and are ceaselessly 

 preyed on by dolphins, tunny and other scombroid fishes. When the sea is phosphorescent, 

 the movements of a shoal of these fishes at the surface look like a great firework display. They 

 live well away from the coasts, but sometimes move landwards and enter sardine nets, causing 

 considerable damage to the catch and blinding the miserable clupeids with jabs from their 

 beaks. They have floating eggs provided with thread-like attachments like those of garfishes 

 and flying-fishes. On hatching, the larvae have no beak, but first the lower jaw becomes elon- 

 gated and then the upper jaw, which extends beyond its partner in the adult. Together with 

 skippers, there are half-beaks (Hemiramphus) in the warm seas, fishes having only the lower 

 jaw in the form of a beak. Some of them, such as the aguyones of the West Indies, ran 

 reach a length of 5 to 6^ feet and are feared by the natives. 



All sea-going vessels know the coryphaenids (Coryphaena hippurus), dorados or 

 dolphins. The body is elongated and immediately behind the head with its rounded snout 

 and curved profile is a long dorsal fin extending to the tail. They are magnificent animals. 

 The emerald-green back is dotted with brilliant blue spots; the belly is golden; the large purple 

 dorsal fin has light- coloured stripes and the tail is yellow. These glittering colours disappear 

 when the fish dies. Dolphin fishes attain a length of 6 J feet. 



The colour pattern of the opah (Lainpris guttaliis) is even more magnificent. This large 

 rounded fish with its laterally compressed body has a purple and silvery dress with a rose-coloured 

 " breastplate ". The head and gill covers are blue, while thejaws are a deep red. Willughby, 

 a seventeenth century English naturalist who had done much sailing, declared that the opah 

 was surely " the Master of Ceremonies in the Court of Neptune ". It has an excellent orange- 

 coloured flesh and the Vikings called it " gudlax ", meaning the salmon of the gods. Except 

 around Madeira, it is a rather rare creature, but it is found in all the oceans. Its scarlet pectoral 

 fins have a horizontally placed insertion, whereas in other fishes this is oblique. When it swims 

 these fins beat up and down like the wings of a bird. 



When the ship is becalmed, and the sea is quite flat, the sailors might see a small " flotilla " 

 smoothly drifting by not far from the side. Black sails two feet high, stretched between numer- 

 ous upright rods like those of some Chinese junks, keep the same course, exactly hugging the 

 wind by the deliberate tilt of their rays. They are the large dorsal fins of sail-fishes (Isliophoriis 

 nigricans), elongated scombroids reaching a length of 6^ feet and having a snout ending in a 

 long beak. Far away from land they sail in the open ocean, tacking in the light breeze that 

 runs along the sea surface in the tropics. If the weather freshens, the flotilla leaves the surface 

 and the sails fold into a groove placed along the back. The fishes dive and swim rapidly : the 

 junks have become submarines. 



But these fine sail-fishes cannot compete in swiftness with the rover of the seas, the swordfish 

 (Xiphias gladius). The lines of its body are those of a torpedo : the powerful bill thrusts a 

 way through the sea and the sleek flanks allow the displaced waters to flow backward without 

 hindrance. Even the pelvic fins have disappeared. The sickle-shaped pectoral fins are remi- 

 niscent of the front flippers of dolphins and the strong tail acts as a powerful rudder. Sword- 

 fishes are the swiftest of fishes. They can exceed speeds of 30 miles an hour and are only sur- 

 passed by cetaceans. They are found in all seas, but most frequently in the tropical regions. 

 However, they meet with cold polar waters, as when following the transgressions they enter 

 the Barents Sea. Here they are hunted by the Lapps. They can be seen throughout the Indian 

 and Pacific Oceans and off the Californian coast they are the sport of big-game fishermen. 

 There is a colony of swordfishes in the Mediterranean. In May they enter Turkish waters to 

 pass through the Bosphorus and sport in the Black Sea. They return in August. 



In the oceans these fishes do not live in shoals or even in schools, but travel in pairs. The 

 larvae are found in the tropics, where the adults undoubtedly reproduce. The great northward 

 and southward excursions must correspond to feeding migrations. Studies have been made of 

 swordfish eggs from the Mediterranean, where young fishes of about half a pound are brought 



91 



