434 Notes on Sport and Travel 



squid or cuttle-fish, and study that strange caudal 

 arrangement which shoots it six and more feet out 

 of the water, anticipating the propelling power of 

 the screw countless ages before Watt ?) might man- 

 age it, but what true fish has sufficient reversing 

 powder as to enable it to pull a periwinkle off a 

 rock ? I once had serious trouble with a Scotch 

 stot hooked over the eyebrow by the back sweep 

 of a salmon-fly ; but that was mere child's play in 

 comparison to what would happen were one fast 

 in a fish possessed of unlimited powers of ' going 

 straight astern.' F. F., you who have caught many 

 fishes in many ways, how would you handle one 

 capable of pulling two or three feet of nose out of the 

 body of a tough bull whale by direct back action ? 



When I see a tunny (and as I have said they 

 are the cleanest leapers I know) leap tail foremost, 

 or see a salmon working up a fall with his head 

 down-stream, I will believe in this sword-fish story ; 

 till then I will keep my mind as open as that of 

 a statesman uncertain in which direction the popular 

 cat is going to jump, or as the valves of an oyster 

 long parted from its native bed. 



One of the few really authentic accusations 

 against the sword-fish is that brought by Captain 

 Beechy, who declares that one attempted to steal 

 the thermometer off his deep-sea line ; but even he 

 failed in his felonious attempt. 



Like the sword-fish, the narwhal occasionally 

 sticks his long tusk into the sides of ships, to his 



