THE TRUE FISHES. 





They are caught in large traps, much like son* of I 

 America, but of enormous extent, the walls in some instances bi 

 miles in extent, and leading to a pot with a netting floor, wlncl 

 raised and lowered as desired by means of rope. The fish are di tiro 



all the mazes of the net, and at last find the way into this pi 

 torn is now lifted, bringing all the fish near the surface, when ti 

 stabbed and hooked by cruel instruments of iron, and each fish 

 killed is drawn into the boats. In a single haul of the pot, nearly a bl 

 sand fish have been obtained, worth at least forty-three thousand I 



The Spanish mackerel, too, must be mentioned, since it is tin- 



most highly esteemed of our fishes, and since it is becoming more ab 



Fig. 312. — Tunny, or horse-mackerel (Oreynus thynnua). 



than in the past, it promises to play a more important part than 

 does in supplying us with food. 



The sword-fishes and sail-fishes are also important torn,.. 

 besides, interesting from the peculiar 'sword' in which the 

 nates: the sail-fishes having the dorsal fin greatly larger than in I 

 sword-fish. The latter is by far the more important of the two, 

 account of it may prove interesting. In Holland's ' Pliny ' of L6I 

 the following : "The Sword-fish, called in the Greeke Xipln 

 say in Latin Gladius, a sword, hath a beake or bill sharp-pointed 

 with he will drive through the sides and plankes of a ship, and 

 so, that the/shall sinke withal. The experience whereoi 

 oceane neare to a place in Mauritania called Gotta, which 

 the river Lixos." We do not need to go so far for the pr 

 tale, for it has often been authenticated even on dur owi 



