358 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [70] 
tunity, strikes the fish, often at the distance of 10 feet. Immediately he 
slackens out the rope, which he holds in his hands, while the boat, with 
the force of all its oars, follows the wounded fish until he has expended 
all his strength. Then he rises to the surface ; the fishermen, approach- 
ing, fasten to him with an iron hook and carry him to the shore. Some- 
times the fish, furious from his wound, strikes the beat and pierces it 
with his sword, so the fishermen stand on their guard, especially if the 
animal is large and active.” 
The young fish are captured in nets about 300 feet long, called pali- 
madaras. These are stretched between two boats with lateen sails, 
moving along, entangling in their meshes everything which they touch. : 
Spallanzani protested vehemently against this fishery. It is carried on 
from October to March. 
Oppian describes a method of capture used in the Mediterranean. A 
bait was fastened with a sliding noose to the line at a distance above 
the naked hook. and the whole was so contrived that when the Sword- 
fish seized the bait with its mouth the hook seized it from behind with 
great force. This story is declared by writers of the present day to have 
been fanciful and without foundation. 
I am indebted to Mr. Frederick W. True for the following translation 
from Prof. Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti’s essay on ‘The Fisheries of Italy”, 
published in 1870,* which gives briefly a description of the methods now 
employed in the vicinity of Messina and elsewhere on the Italian coast :t 
‘“‘ Sword-fish are taken from time to time, together with the tunnies, 
in the tonnare ;t but hook-and-line and gill-net fisheries are also carried 
on, the methods of which we may describe somewhat at length. 
“Two very distinct fisheries are prosecuted—one by day, the other by 
night. The former is carried on by means of peculiarly constructed nets 
called palamitare; the latter by the use of harpoons, or draffiniere, 
as they are called. The harpoon fishery is prosecuted in the Straits of 
Messina, on the coasts of Calabria and Sicily, and among the Eolian 
Islands. 
““The fish appear earliest along the coasts of Calabria, between Gioia 
Tauro, Palmi, Bagnara, and Scilla, and hence it is in these localities 
that the fishery first begins. It is prosecuted later in the season on the 
Sicilian coast, between S. Teresa al Faro, Gazzi, Salvatore dei Greci, 
and Capo Peloro. 
“The net fishery on the Calabrian coast is carried on most extensively 
between Palmi and Scilla, the harpoon fishery between Palmi and Capo 
*La Pesca nei Mari d'Italia e la Pesca all’Estero Esercitata da Italiani. < Cata- 
logo degli Espositori e delle cose esposte, Sezione Italiana, Esposizione Internazionale 
di Pesca in Berlino, 1880. Firenze, Stamperia Reale, 1880, pp. Xv-cxxxvi. 
Swordfish Fishery—Pesca della Pesce spada, pp. lxix-]xxiii. 
t The author states that the material for the following article is derived from the 
writings of Duhamel, Oppian, Spallanzani, and Vetrioli. 
tA kind of pound-net constructed for the capture of tunnies or horse-mackerel 
£ Orcynus thynnus). 
