112 FISH—-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
feet from her Keel, just before the Fore Mast; which they 
searching into, found the Bone or Part of the Horn of a Fish of 
the Figure here described ; the Outside Rough not unlike Sea/- 
Skin ; and the End, where it was broken off shewed itself ike 
coarse Ivory. The Fish is supposed to have followed the Ship, 
when under Sail, because the sharp End of the Horn Pointed 
toward the Bow: It penetrated with that Swiftness or Strength 
that it went through the Sheathing one inch thick, the Plank 
three Inches thick, and into the Timber four and a half 
imehesis 0% 
Don Joseph Cornide, 1n his “ Essayo de Una Historia de los 
Peces de la Costa de Galicia,” 1787 : 
“ This fish is taken in the seas of Galicia, where it is more 
common toward the Rio de Vigo, where it is well known that 
the Balandia (a small fishing vessel) of S. M. le Ardilla was 
pierced in its side and sunk by the arm of one of these fishes, 
which is preserved in the Royal Cabinet of Natural History.” 
In 1871 the little yacht Redhot, of New Bedford, was out 
swordfishing, and a swordfish had been hauled in to be lanced, 
and it attacked the vessel and pierced the side so as to sink the 
vessel. She was repaired and used in the service of the com- 
mission at Wood’s Holl. (Prof. Baird.) 
Couch quotes the personal statement of a gentleman, who 
says 
‘“We have had the pleasure of inspecting a piece of wood cut 
out of one of the fore planks of a vessel (the Priscilla from Per- 
nambuco), through which was struck about eighteen inches of 
the bony weapon of the swordfish. The force with which it 
must have been driven in affords a striking exemplification of 
the power and ferocity of the fish. The Priscilla is quite a new 
vessel. Captain Taylor, her commander, states that when near 
the Azores, as he was walking along the quarter-deck at night, a 
shock was felt which brought all hands from below, under the 
impression that the ship had touched upon some rock. This 
was, no doubt, when the occurrence took place.” 
The New York Herald of May-rrth, 1871, states : 
* An account of the horn of a Fish struck several inches into the side of a Ship, by C. 
Mortimer, M. D., F.R.S. Philos. Trans. xl., No. 461, p. 862, 1741. 
