108 FISH—CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
subject of much deeper interest, for it throws light on the time 
and place of breeding. There is some difference of testimony 
regarding the average size, but all fishermen with whom I have 
talked agree that very small ones do not find their way into our 
waters. I have collected several instances from the experiences 
of men long wonted to this fishery. 
Capt. John Rowe has seen one which did not weigh more than 
seventy-five pounds when taken out of the water. 
Capt. R. H. Hurlbert killed, near Block Island, in July, 1877, 
one which weighed fifty pounds, and measured about two feet 
without its sword. 
Captain Ashby’s smallest weighed about twenty-five pounds 
when dressed ; this he killed off Noman’s Land. He never killed 
another which weighed less than one hundred. He tells me that 
a Bridgeport smack had one weighing sixteen pounds (or pro- 
bably twenty-four when alive), and measuring eighteen inches 
without its sword. 
In August, 1878, a small specimen of the mackerel shark, 
Lamna cornubica, was captured at the mouth of Gloucester Har- 
bor. In its nostril was sticking the sword, about three inches 
long, of a young swordfish. When this was pulled out the 
blood flowed freely, indicating that the wound was recent. The 
fish to which this sword belonged cannot have exceeded ten or 
twelve inches in length. Whether the small swordfish met with 
its misfortune in our waters, or whether the shark brought this 
trophy from beyond the sea, is a question I cannot answer. 
Liitken speaks of a very young individual taken in the Atlan- 
‘tic, lat. 32 deg. 50 min. N., long. 74 deg. 19 min. W. This must 
be about one hundred and fifty miles southeast of Cape 
Hatteras. 
SIZE OF SWORDFISH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 
In the Mediterranean, near Sicily and Genoa, young fish, 
ranging in weight from half a pound to twelve pounds, are said 
to be abundant between November and March. 
About La Ciotat and Martigues, in the south of France, many 
are taken too small to injure the fishing-nets, and very rarely 
reaching the weight of one hundred pounds. 
