THE BROAD-FINNED SWORD-FISH. 131 



When his majesty's ship Leopard, after her re- 

 turn from the coast of Guinea and the West Indies, 

 was ordered, in 1725, to be cleaned and refitted for 

 the Channel service, in stripping off her sheathing 

 the ship-wrights found in her bottom, pointing in a 

 direction from the stern towards the head, part of the 

 sword or snout of one of these fishes. On the out- 

 side this was rough, not unlike seal-skin, and the 

 end, where it was broken off, appeared like a coarse 

 kind of ivory. The fish from the direction in which 

 the sword lay, is supposed to have followed the ship 

 when under sail. It had penetrated through the 

 sheathing, which was an inch thick, passed through 

 three inches of plank, and beyond that four inches 

 and a half into the timber. The force requisite to 

 effect this (since the vessel sailed in a direction from 

 the fish) must have been excessively great, especi- 

 ally as no shock was felt by the persons on board. 

 The workmen on the spot declared it impossible, 

 with a hammer of a quarter of a hundred weight, 

 to drive an iron pin of the same form and size into 

 that wood, and to the same depth, in less than 

 eight or nine strokes, whilst this had been effected 

 by only one *. 



And about sixteen years ago a letter was written 

 to Sir Josoph Banks, as president of the Royal So- 

 ciety, from the captain of an East-Indiaman, accom- 

 panied with an account of another instance of the 

 amazing strength which this fish occasionally exerts 



* Mortimer in Phil. Tian. vol. xli. p. 862. 



K 2 



