SWORDFISH. 



145 



attacked the distressed whale, stabbing from below ; and thus 

 beset on all sides and wounded, when the poor creature 

 appeared, the water around him was dyed with blood. In 

 this manner they continued tormenting and wounding him for 

 many hours, until we lost sight of him ; and, I have no 

 doubt, they in the end completed his destruction." 



It is a commonly received notion, that it is in consequence 

 of mistaking the hull of a ship at sea for a whale, that the 

 Swordfish occasionally endeavours to thrust his sword-like 

 beak into the vessel. Those who have been on board on 

 such an occasion, found it difficult to believe that the vessel 

 had not struck against some rock unseen below the surface, 

 so great had been the violence of the shock, from the weight 

 and power of the fish. Specimens of ships' planks and tim- 

 bers, deeply penetrated by what appears to be the pointed 

 upper jaw of a Swordfish, broken off by the concussion, are 

 shown in various museums ; the forms and structure of which 

 indicate that, if they did belong to Swordfish, several species, 

 some of them attaining a large size, must exist : some are 

 evidently referrible to the allied genus Istiophorus, which is 

 limited in its range to more tropical seas. Mr. Scoresby 

 states an instance of a ship from the coast of Africa, the bow 

 of which had been penetrated by a bone, which he considered 

 was the snout of a Swordfish ; and other instances are re- 

 corded. 



Captain Beechey says, " When in the Pacific Ocean, near 

 Easter Island, as the line was hauling in, a large Swordfish 

 bit at the tin case which contained our thermometer, but 

 fortunately failed in carrying it off." 



The Swordfish are said to go in pairs, and would probably 

 be captured more frequently, but that their great timidity and 

 vigilance save them. 



The mode of obtaining them, as practised in the Mediter- 



VOL. I. L 



