ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 97 
discovery was followed by the publication of two other instances 
of its occurrence in this region.* 
SWORDFISH ENTERING RIVERS. 
Swordfish have been known to enter the rivers of Europe. 
We have no record of sucha habit in those frequenting our 
waters.t 
Aelian’s improbable story that they were taken in the Danube 
in winter has been mentioned. Southey and others relate that 
a man was killed while bathing in the Severn, near Worcester, 
by one of these fishes, which was afterwards caught. 
Couch states that a swordfish, supposed to weigh nearly three 
hundred pounds, was caught in the river Parrett, near Bridge- 
water, in July, 1834.{ 
According to De la Blanchére, one of them was taken in the 
ninth year of the French Republic, in the river of Vannes, on 
the coast of Rhuys.$ 
In the great hall of the Rathhaus, in the city of Bremen, hangs 
alarge painting of a swordfish which was taken in the river 
Weser by some Bremen fishermen some time in the seventeenth 
century. 
Underneath it is painted the following inscription : 
““ ANNO, 1696. DEN 18. JULI. IST. DIESER 
* Hector, Trans. New Zealand Inst., vii. (1874) 1875, p. 246; Hutton, ibid. viii., (1875) 1876, 
p. 211; Cheeseman, ibid. p. 210. 
+They sometimes approach very near the shore, however, as is shown bythe following 
extract from a Cape Cod paper: 
A Swordfish in close quarters —Monday afternuon, while Mr. A. McKenzie, the boatbuilder 
’ on J. S. Atwood’s wharf, was busily at work, his attention was attracted bya splashing of 
water under his workshop, as if a scoreof boys were swimming and making all the noise they 
possibly could by beating the water with their feet and hands. After this had been kept up a 
while, his curiosity became excited, and upon investigating the cause of the disturbance, dis- 
covered a swordfish among the rocks, where, in his attempts to escape, he had become 
bewildered and imprisoned. Quickly getting a harpoon, Mr. McKenzie fastened the fish, 
and with the aid of bystanders drew it alive upon the wharf, where it was visited by many 
spectators, and subsequently dressed and sold. It measured ten feet from the end of its 
sword to the tip of the tail, the sword itself being three feetin length. It is the first instance 
known of one of these fish being so near the shore, and why it should have been there at that 
time described is not easily explained.—Provincetown Advocate, September 29th, 1875. 
{¢ History of British Fishes, ii., p. 148. 
§ Dictionnaire Général des Peches. 
