Big Game at Sea 



fying this assumption. Doubtless to land such game 

 one runs a possible risk of being charged or rammed 

 by the game, but I believe it to be very slight. 



The big swordfish, still feeling the broken line 

 dragging over its perfectly smooth back, rushed 

 madly about, gradually quieting down and taking up 

 a swinging gait to the north. It had reached the 

 deeper waters where a deep channel or fiord cuts into 

 the island, when, without warning, a blue-backed, 

 torpedo-like body shot out of the depths, coming at 

 it like an arrow. The swordfish tipped down and a 

 sword grazed its head as a big thick-set member of 

 its own family, a trim but heavy fish with a sword but 

 half the length of its own, swept through the water 

 above it. The two fishes turned and came at each 

 other like mad bulls, tossing spray into the air with 

 their knife-like dorsals, in so deadly a fashion that a 

 spectator* stopped rowing, backed off to a presumably 

 safe distance, then stood up in his boat and watched 

 the demoniac struggle for the mastery by these two 

 well matched swordsmen of the sea. Again by some 

 miracle they missed, just grazing one another and so 

 shooting on into the blue of the ocean, to whirl about 

 and begin the circling play for time and opportunity. 

 They turned about each other possibly three or four 

 times, then like battering rams came together with a 

 strange whistling sound and an impact that tossed the 



* This duel was observed by Harry Elms, of Avalon, and the author examined 

 the skull of one of the fishes later. 



240 



