Amonr the Sharks and Whales ' 433 



That the sword-fish does occasionally by mere 

 headlong accident drive his long snout into a ship's 

 timbers, to his own infinite grief, there is no doubt, 

 though even this could only happen in very ex- 

 ceptional circumstances ; but that he is ever fool 

 enough to do it malice prepense, mistaking the 

 ship for a whale, I can hardly think of him. I 

 would as soon believe that the Cunarder which 

 killed the whale with a blow of its screw off Cork 

 a few years ago was actuated by malignant feelings. 



Poor Xiphias gladius, a meek -spirited thing, as 

 are most things with abnormally long noses (snipe 

 and elephants and saw-fishes for instance), a creature 

 which a cowardly rogue of a Messenian can capture 

 easily without the slightest fear of his turning his 

 so-called sword (which I honestly believe with 

 Pennant would, except in very old specimens, double 

 up like an ancient Scandinavian iron one were he 

 to try it) against his boat, or of his spitting her 

 crew by the half-dozen through the back, like larks 

 — for him to attack a boat or a whale ! Not such 

 a fool ! He knows quite well that his best chance 

 of escape is in his tail ; and that if once he gets 

 anything stuck on to the end of his snout, he has 

 no more chance of getting it off than a giraffe has 

 of using a pocket-handkerchief. Supposing he were 

 mad enough to try his beak-ram attack after the 

 manner of the ancients, how could he ever pull his 

 unfortunate nose out of the softest whale ? A lobster 

 or a flying-squid (did you ever see a true flying- 



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