258 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



while fishing, hooked a sword-fish. Xiphias, however, 

 broke the line, and a few moments after leaped half 

 out of the water, with the object, it would seem, of 

 taking a look at his persecutor, the 'Dreadnought.' 

 Probably he satisfied himself that the enemy was some 

 abnormally large cetacean, which it was his natural 

 duty to attack forthwith. Be this as it may, the attack 

 was made, and at four o'clock the next morning the 

 captain was awakened with the unwelcome intelligence 

 that the ship had sprung a leak. She was taken back 

 to Colombo, and thence to Cochin, where she was hove 

 down. Near the keel was found a round hole, an inch 

 in diameter, running completely through the copper 

 sheathing and planking. 



As attacks by sword-fish are included among sea 

 risks, the insurance company was willing to pay the 

 damages claimed by the owners of the ship, if only it 

 could be proved that the hole had really been made by 

 a sword-fish. No instance had ever been recorded in 

 which a sword-fish had been able to withdraw his 

 sword after attacking a ship. A defence was founded 

 on the possibility that the hole had been made in some 

 other way. Professor Owen and Mr. Frank Buckland 

 gave their evidence; but neither of them could state 

 quite positively whether a sword-fish which had passed 

 its beak through three inches of stout planking could 

 withdraw without the loss of its sword. Mr. Buckland 

 said that fish have no power of ' backing,' and expressed 

 his belief that he could hold a sword-fish by the beak ; 

 but then he admitted that the fish had considerable 



