432 Notes on Sport and Travel v 



' Ac durus Xiphias, ictu non mitior ensis, 

 Et pavidi magno fugientes agmine Thunni.' 



Which my author tells me means in the vernacular 



' Sharp as a sword the Xiphias does appear, 

 And crowds of flying tunnies struck with fear.' 



True, O Ovidius Naso ! (did he resent the 

 long nose of the Xiphias as a personality ?) so far 

 as the crowds of flying tunnies go, for I know no 

 fish with a more tremendous power of ' breaching,' 

 as the whalers call it, throwing the whole body 

 clean and clear out of the water, a most beautiful 

 thing to see on a sunny day ; but I demur to the 

 expression ' struck with fear.' I have seen them 

 do it over and over again, apparently from mere 

 frolic or from excess of springing -power, when in 

 pursuit of food, without there being the slightest 

 suspicion of a sword-fish within leagues. 



When I am asked to believe that a sword-fish 

 attacks and frightens a tunny, one of the fastest fishes 

 swimming, and not only that, but enters into strange 

 conspiracies with other fish, and even with mammals 

 with whom he can hardly be on speaking terms, I 

 must pause a little. And when, in addition, I am 

 asked by a gentleman, whose good faith I cannot 

 for a moment question, to believe that he saw a 

 sword-fish play alternately the double part of the 

 thresher threshing from above, and the prodder 

 prodding a whale in the stomach from beneath, I 

 must pause still more, convinced that there must 

 surely be a mistake somewhere. 



