202 ACAXTHOPTERYGII. 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- 



