640 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
This fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean 
and Atlantic, in company with the tunny, from five to six feet in 
length. Its body is lengthy, and covered with minute scales, the 
sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a 
single long dorsal fin ; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the 
mouth toothless, the upper part of the fish bluish-black, merging into 
Fig. 490,—Fishing for Sword-fish in the Straits of Messina. 
silver beneath. It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards 
and against all the weapon with which Nature has furnished it; it 
darts with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies ; 
it attacks the whale ; and there are numerous and well-authenticated 
instances of ships being perforated by the weapon of this powerful 
creature. 
In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom 
of a ship which had just returned from the tropical seas, found the 
snout of a sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They 
