(69] MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF THE SWORD-FISHES. 357 
this method of fishing to a military stratagem. This ruse was known 
also to the Romans, and in their time the swordfishery was one of the 
most important. They also captured these fish in madragues, in which 
they were easily entangled while pursuing tunnies and other fishes of 
the mackerel tribe. ‘Although he is able to break the nets,” said Op- 
pian, ‘he shrinks from it; he fears some snare, and his timidity coun- 
sels him ill; he ends by remaining a prisoner within the ring of the net, 
and becomes the prey of the fishermen, who with united effort drag him 
to the shore.” This does not always occur, to be sure, for often, to the 
grief of his would-be captors, he breaks the walls of his sepulcher, liber- 
‘ating also the other fishes buried with him. 
There is at the present day a fishery in the Straits of Messina, con- 
tinuing on the Calabrian shore from the middle of April to the latter 
part of June; on the Sicilian shore from the first of July to the end of 
September. The Calabrian fish appear to approach by the Pharos, the 
Sicilian ones by the southern entrance of the straits. This summer 
fishery has for its object the capture of the large fish, which are killed 
with a lance. The boats used are about 18 feet long, 4 feet deep, and 
broader at the stern than at the bow. There is a single mast, 17 feet 
high, surmounted by a brace of a curved form, intended to support the 
lookout, who gains access to it by steps fastened to the mast. The look- 
out from this elevated station views the movements of the fish, and by 
voice or gesture directs the movements of the oarsmen. At the proper 
time he descends, and standing on a narrow thwart amidships he aids 
the waist-oarsmen and performs the office of steersman. 
At the bow stands the man who strikes the fish. His lance is about 
12 feet long, with an iron head, which, from the vague description of 
Meunier, appears to resemble closely the American lily-iron. This is 
detachable, and to it is fastened a line as thick as one’s little finger and 
600 feet long (200 meters). 
Two guards are also stationed on the shore. On the Calabrian coast 
they climb upon high rocks and cliffs; on the opposite shore, where 
there are none, they stand on a tower, built expressly for this purpose, 
about 800 feet in height. 
“Eiverything being arranged,” says Spallanzani, “behold the order 
of the fishery. When the two watchmen perched upon the tops of the 
rocks or of the mast judge that a Sword-fish approaches from afar, by | 
the change in the color of the water, at the surface of which he swims, 
they signal with the hand to the fishermen, who row toward it with their 
boats, and they do not cease to ery out and to make signs until the other 
lookout on the mast of the boat has perceived the fish and follows it 
with his eye. At the voice of the latter the boat veers now to the right, 
now to the left, until the lancer, standing at the bow, weapon in hand, 
eatches sight of the fish. Now the lookout descends from his mast, sta- 
tions himself among the oarsmen, and directs their movements in accord- 
ance with signals given him by the lancer; he, seizing a favorable oppor- 
