SWORD-FISH, SPEAR-FISH AND CUTLASS-FISH. 243 
grooves, the absence of ventrals, the long, lithe, muscular body, sloping 
slowly to the tail, fit it for the most rapid and forcible movement through 
the water. Prof. Richard Owen, testifying in an English court in regard 
to its power, said : 
“It strikes with the accumulated force of fifteen double-handed ham- 
mers. Its velocity is equal to that of a swivel-shot, and is as dangerous 
in its effects as a heavy artillery projectile.’’ 
Many very curious instances are on record of the encounters of this fish 
with other fishes, or of their attacks upon ships. What can be the 
inducement for it to attack objects so much larger than itself it is hard to 
surmise. We are all familiar with the couplet from Oppian: 
Nature her bounty to his mouth confined, 
Gave him a sword, but left unarmed his mind. 
It surely seems as if a temporary insanity sometimes takes possession of 
the fish. It is not strange that, when harpooned, it should retaliate by 
attacking its assailant. An old sword-fish fisherman told Mr. Blackford 
that his vessel had been struck twenty times. There are, however, many 
instances of entirely unprovoked assault on vessels at sea. Many of these 
are recounted in a later portion of this memoir. Their movements when 
feeding are discussed below, as well as their alleged peculiarities of move- 
ment during the breeding season. 
It is the universal testimony of our fishermen that two are never seen 
swimming close together. Capt. Ashby says that they are always distant 
from each other at least thirty or forty feet. 
The pugnacity of the Sword-fish has become a by-word. Without any 
special effort on my part numerous instances of their attacks upon 
vessels have in the last ten years found their way into the pigeon-hole 
labeled ‘‘Sword-fish.’’ 
4flian says (b. xxxii, ©. 6) that the Sword-fish has a sharp-pointed 
snout, with which it is able to pierce the sides of a ship and send it to the 
bottom, instances of which have been known near a place in Mauritania 
known as Cotté, not far from the river Lixus, on the African side of the 
Mediterranean. He describes the sword as like the beak of the ship 
known as the trireme, which was rowed with three banks of oars. 
The ‘‘London Daily News’’ of December 11, 1868, contained the 
following paragraph, which emanated, I suspect, from the pen of Prof. 
R. A. Proctor: 
