ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 103 
There is one theory by which this difficulty may be avoided. 
We may snppose that the swordfish take the hook on their way 
down to the bottom ; that in their struggles they get entangled 
in the line and hooks, and when exhausted sink to the bottom. 
This is not improbable. A conversation with some fishermen 
who have caught them in this way develops the fact that the fish 
are usually much tangled in the line, and are nearly lifeless 
when they are brought to the surface. A confirmation is found 
in the observations of Captain Baker, of the schooner Peter D. 
Smith, of Gloucester, who tells me that they often are taken on 
the hand-lines of the cod-fishermen on George’s Banks. His 
observations lead him to believe that they only take the hook 
when the tide is running very swiftly and the lines are trailing 
out in the tide-way at a considerable distance from the bottom, 
and that the swordfish strike for the bottom as soon as they are 
hooked. This theory is not improbable, as I have already re- 
marked, but I do not at present advocate it very strongly. I 
want more facts before making up my own mind. At present, 
the relation of the swordfish to temperature must be left with- 
out being understood. 
The appearance of the fish at the surface depends apparently 
upon temperature. They are seen only upon quiet summer 
days, in the morning before ten or eleven o'clock, and in the 
afternoon about four o’clock. Old fishermen say that they rise 
when the mackerel rise, and when the mackerel go down they 
go down also. 
PROBABLE WINTER HABITAT OF THE SWORDFISH. 
Regarding the winter abode of the swordfish conjecture is use- 
less. I have already discussed this question at length with 
reference to the menhaden and mackerel. With the swordfish 
the conditions are very different. The former are known to 
spawn in our waters, and the schools of young ones follow the 
old ones in toward the shores. The latter do not spawn in our 
waters. We cannot well believe that they hibernate, nor is the 
hypothesis of a sojourn in the middle strata of midocean exactly 
tenable. Perhaps they migrate to some distant region, where 
they spawn. But then the spawning time of this species in the 
