202 ACANTIIOPTERYGII. MACKEREL FAMILY. 



Drs. Leach and Knox, and Professor Grant, have 

 each examined specimens obtained in Scotland ; and 

 one of these, found in 1826, between Alloa and 

 Stirling, is now in the Edinburgh Royal Museum. 

 In the Baltic and Northern Ocean, it is often en- 

 countered. As it regards the English coasts, a 

 specimen was exhibited at Brighton in the year 

 1796, which had been caught in the neighbour- 

 hood ; Mr. Daniel, in his Rural Sports, mentions 

 that, in the Severn, near Worcester, a man bathing- 

 was struck, and actually received his death-wound 

 from a Sword-fish : the fish was immediately caught, 

 so that there could be no mistake as to the circum- 

 stance. In October 1834, as mentioned by Mr. 

 Yarrell, a party of gentlemen in their pleasure-boat, 

 off the coast of Essex, observed something bulky 

 floating on the water, which they found to be a 

 Sword-fish, ten feet long, of which the sword mea- 

 sured three ; and the last-named Naturalist received 

 one in July of the same year, which had been taken 

 in Bridge water river. Specimens are often stranded 

 on different coasts, a circumstance which has been 

 explained by the allegation, that these fish being 

 peculiarly exposed to the attacks of various para- 

 sitic animals, which torment them beyond endur- 

 ance, they, in despair, cast themselves ashore, to rid 

 themselves at once of their tormentors and their 

 lives. 



The Sword-fish is reported to have violent con- 

 tests with the whale, of which the following, quoted 

 by Mr. Yarrell, is a striking example. One morn- 



