166 GIANT FISHES 



the appearance of two fin-tips projecting from the water — the 

 tip of the dorsal fin and that of the upper lobe of the caudal 

 fin. 



Like the Spear-fishes and Sail-fishes, they prey mainly upon 

 smaller fishes of all kinds, and attack these in much the same 

 manner. Some observers credit them with splitting bonitoes 

 and albacores with a single stroke, but it seems likely that their 

 preference is for the smaller fishes, whose massed formation 

 makes them an easy object of attack. 



Much has been written concerning the alleged ferocity of 

 the Sword-fish, that " terrible giant of the sea ", as one writer 

 describes it, but so many of the accounts are so obviously 

 unreliable or based upon what is clearly faulty observation that 

 it is wellnigh impossible to get at the truth. Further, in the 

 vast majority of " Sword-fish yarns " no effort is made to 

 indicate the type of fish concerned, and Spear-fishes, Sail- 

 fishes, as well as the true Sword-fish or Broadbill, are lumped 

 together indiscriminately as " Sword-fishes ". Books of ocean 

 travel, especially the older ones, abound with eye-witness 

 accounts of terrific combats between huge whales and sword- 

 fishes, sometimes assisted by threshers, but closer investigation 

 generally reveals that the story has been copied (and frequently 

 embellished) from some previously existing report, or that the 

 fight has been observed " from a considerable distance ". 



A certain Captain Crow has the following story : " One 

 morning during a calm, when near the Hebrides, all hands were 

 called up at 3 a.m. to witness a battle between several of the 

 fish termed thrashers or fox sharks and some swordfish* on 

 the one side, and an enormous whale on the other. As soon 

 as the whale's back appeared above the water the thrashers, 

 springing several yards into the air, descended with great 

 violence upon the object of their rancour, and inflicted upon 

 him the most severe blows with their long tails, the sounds of 

 which resembled that of muskets fired at a distance. The 

 swordfish in turn attacked the distressed whale, stabbing from 

 below ; and, thus beset on all sides and wounded, the water 

 around him was dyed with blood." Another account describes 

 the Sword-fish as attacking from below, goading his mighty 

 adversary to the surface with his sharp beak, while the thresher 

 belabours him with strokes of his long, lithe tail ! 



