THE SWORDFISHES 



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the dorsal fin lower than the depth of the body; the general color being gray, but 

 the dorsal and pectoral fins tipped with black. 



Mainly pelagic in their habits, swordfishes are among the most predaceous and 

 savage of the monsters of the deep, transfixing their ordinary prey, which includes 

 cod and tunny, with their formidable sword, and likewise attacking whales with 

 the same weapon. In such conflicts, the swordfish, after making repeated stabs, 

 generally comes out victorious, and the whale succumbs to his comparatively di- 

 minutive antagonist. Occasionally, however, one of these fishes appears to mistake 

 a ship's bottom for a whale, and thereupon promptly charges it, sending the sword 

 crashing through several inches of solid timber. In such cases it may happen that 

 the swordfish cannot withdraw its weapon, which is then broken off short in the 



SPOTTED INDIAN SWORDFISH. 



(One-twentieth natural size.) 



struggles of its owner to escape. One thing we should like to see cleared up by 

 actual observation, and that is, in what manner a swordfish manages to remove 

 from his weapon a cod, or other fish, which it has spitted. Instances are on record 

 of these fish attacking and transfixing bathers; one such having occurred in the es- 

 tuary of the Severn about the year 1830. Writing of one of the Pacific species, 

 Colonel Pike observes that ' ' this fish is a beautiful sight in the water. It has a 

 habit of lying sunning itself on the surface when undisturbed, its dorsal fin is fully 

 expanded and acting as a sail (and when needed it can propel itself at great speed); 

 but it is only in the calmest weather it can be thus seen. It is frequently caught in 

 deep water with hook and line, and when near the surface it is speared." When it 

 feels the hook or spear, a swordfish takes tremendous leaps in the air, and if care 



