252 AMERICAN FISHES. 



partakes more of the nature of the chase. There is no slow or careful 

 baiting and patient waiting, and no disappointment caused by the acci- 

 dental capture of worthless " bait-stealers." The game is seen and 

 followed, and outwitted by wary tactics, and killed by strength of arm and 

 skill. The Sword-fish is a powerful antagonist, sometimes, and sends his 

 pursuers' vessel into harbor leaking, and almost sinking, from injuries 

 which he has inflicted. I have known a vessel to be struck by wounded 

 Sword-fish as many as twenty times in a season. There is even the spice 

 of personal danger to give savor to the chase, for the men are occasionally 

 injured by the infuriated fish. One of Capt. Ashby's crew was severely 

 wounded by a Sword-fish which thrust his beak through the oak floor of a 

 boat on which he was standing, and penetrated about two inches in his 

 naked heel. The strange fascination draws men to this pursuit when they 

 have once learned its charms. An old Swords-fisherman, who had followed 

 the pursuit for twenty years, told me that when he was on the cruising 

 ground, he fished all night in his dreams, and that many a time he has 

 bruised his hands and rubbed the skin off his knuckles by striking them 

 against the ceiling of his bunk when he raised his arms to thrust the har- 

 poon into visionary monster Sword-fishes. 



The Bill-fish or Spear-fish, Tctrapturus indiciis (with various related 

 forms, which may or may not be specifically identical) occurs in the Western 

 Atlantic from the West Indies, latitude io° to 20° N., to Southern New 

 England, latitude 42° N.; in the Eastern Atlantic, from Gibralter, latitude 

 45° N., to the Cape of Good Hope, latitude 30° S.; in the Indian Ocean, 

 the Malay Archipelago, New Zealand, latitude 40° S., and on the west 

 coast of Chila and Peru. In a general way, the range is between latitude 

 40° N., and latitude 40° S. 



The species of Tctrapturus which we have been accustomed to call T. 

 alhidus, abundant about Cuba, is not very unusual on the coast of 

 Southern New England. Several are taken every year by the Sword-fish 

 fishermen. I have not known of their capture along the Southern Atlantic 

 coast of the United States. All I have known about were taken between 

 Sandy Hook and the eastern part of George's Banks. 



The Mediterranean Spear-fish, Tdrapturus bclone, appears to be a land- 

 locked form, never passing west of the Straits of Gibralter. 



The Spear-fish in our waters is said by our fishermen to resemble the 

 Sword-fish in its movements and manner of feeding. Prof. Poey narrates 



