26G EVIDENCE AND VERDICT OF SHIP "DREADNOUGHT." 



fisli did the damage ; and their learned counsel stated 

 that sword-fish attacked whales ; and, not imfre- 

 quently, they mistook ships for whales, and attacked 

 them. The damage in this instance was within a foot 

 or two of the keel, and the sum claimed by the plaintiffs 

 was £5S4 os. 



The defence was, that the plaintiffs had failed to 

 show how the injmy to the ship had been caused. The 

 hole which had been spoken of, it appeared, pointed 

 somewhat upwards and towards the stern of the ship, 

 and it passed diagonally through a three-inch oak 

 plank. No doubt sword-fish sometimes pierced ships; 

 but when they did so, the sword broke off and remained 

 in the ship. It could hardly be imagined that the fish 

 could withdi-aw his sword from the pinch of the oak 

 plank, and especially so as, in this instance, the onward 

 motion of the ship would tend to force the fish against 

 the ship, and not fi-om it. Under the policy, the 

 plaintiffs could recover only for injury ''caused by 

 contact with some substance other than water." The 

 verdict was to this effect. To my mind a most unsatis- 

 factory solution of the difficulty. 



... • , ^, TENCH. 



Abdominales Malacopterygii. Cyprinidce. 



{Tinea vulgaris.) 



German: Die Schleihe, Schleierkarpfen. French: La Tanche. 

 Dutch : Zeelt. Itahan : Tinea. 



It is a remarkable fact how the human mind seems to 

 delight in fallacies. There are certain stories, many of 

 them of great antiquity, which are continually cropping 

 up, and to which vitality is imparted by modern books, 

 which again are copied one fi'om the other. One of these 



