TALES OF FISHES 



by a central piece much thicker than they, in which, 

 upon one side, and next to the flat side of the blade, 

 is the socket for the insertion of the pole-shank. 

 In this same central enlargement is forged an open- 

 ing to which the harpoon-line is attached. The 

 dart-head is usually made of steel; sometimes of 

 iron, which is generally galvanized; sometimes of 

 brass. 



The entire weight of the harpoon — ^pole, shank, 

 and head — should not exceed eighteen pounds. 



The harpoon-line is from fifty to one hundred and 

 fifty fathoms long, and is ordinarily what is known 

 as "fifteen-thread line." At the end is sometimes 

 fastened a buoy, and an ordinary mackerel-keg is 

 generally used for this purpose. 



In addition to the harpoon every swordfish fisher- 

 man carries a lance. This implement is precisely sim- 

 ilar to a whaleman's lance, except that it is smaller, 

 consisting of a lanceolate blade perhaps one inch 

 wide and two inches long, upon the end of a shank 

 of five-eighths-inch iron, perhaps two or three feet 

 in length, fastened in the ordinary way upon a pole 

 fifteen to eighteen feet in length. 



The swordfish are always harpooned from the 

 end of the bowsprit of a sailing-vessel. It is next to 

 impossible to approach them in a small boat. All 

 vessels regularly engaged in this fishery are supplied 

 with a special apparatus called a "rest," or "pul- 

 pit," for the support of the harpooner as he stands 

 on the bowsprit, and this is almost essential to suc- 

 cess, although it is possible for an active man to 

 harpoon a fish from this station without the aid of 

 the ordinary framework. Not only the professional 



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