ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING, 133 
fish which thrust its beak through the oak floor of a boat on 
which he was standing, and penetrated about two inches in his 
naked heel. The strange fascination draws men to this pursuit 
when they have once learned its charm. An old swordfisher- 
man, who has followed the pursuit for twenty years, told me 
that when he was on the cruising ground he fished all night in 
his dreams, and that many atime he has bruised his hands and 
rubbed the skin off his knuckles by striking them against the 
ceiling of his bunk when he raised his arms to thrust the har 
poon into visionary monster swordfishes. 
A LANDSMAN’S DESCRIPTION OF SWORDFISHING. 
Mr. C. F. Holder, of New York, published in Forest and 
Stream, February 17th, 1876, the following debexiption of a trip 
after swordfish in Block Island sound: 
“ Lying all night in the harbor of Wood’s Holl, we had ample 
time to prepare for sport, and at three o’clock in the morning 
our little sloop was swinging around, and, gathering herself to- 
gether, headed for Gay Head. The vessel was a common sloop 
of about sixty tons, its only peculiarity being a stanchion, with 
a curved top, to hold the harpooner, rigged on the extreme end 
of the bowsprit. At nine o’clock we were out of sight of the 
Vineyard. The wind settling, I was informed that t could go 
aloft and use my weather-eye, and the better I used it the more 
fish we would get. After not a few attempts toclimb the greasy 
pole of a mast, I found myself aloft, with a firm grasp upon the 
throat of the gaff, my weather-eye, contrary to orders, full of 
tar, and my port on the lookout for the game. We were just 
moving along, and I was taking in the horizon for miles around 
when the man at the bow uttered a sound, which was a sort of a 
cross between a cluck and a groan, which I saw meant ‘port,’ 
and that something had been sighted. The old craft fell lazily 
away, and I then saw two dark forms, with their razor-like fins 
out of the water, slowly moving along ahead of us. The cap- 
tain signaled at once for me tg come down, and as I reached the 
deck the fun commenced. The man waited until we were almost 
upon them, and as one of them turned, as if in idle curiosity to 
see what the great shadow meant, he hurled a spear, and the 
