FISHES. 641 
declared that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and 
form to the same depth, would require eight or nine blows with a 
hammer weighing thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon 
it was evident that the fish had followed the ship while under full 
sail ; it had penetrated through the metal sheathing, and three inches 
and a half beyond, into the solid frame. 
The sword-fish has obstinate combats with the saw-fish, and even 
the shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a 
vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy. 
The flesh of the young sword-fish is white, compact, and of ex- 
cellent taste ; that of adults resembles the tunny. It is the object of 
Fig. 40r.—The Sea-Snail (Liparis barbatus). 
a fishery of some importance in the Straits of Messina. The fisher- 
men of Messina and Reggio join in this fishery with a great number 
of boats, carrying brilliant flambeaux, while one of the crew is 
stationed at the mast-head to announce the approach of the sword- 
fish. At a given signal the boats rush on to attack them with the 
harpoons (Fig. 400). During this fishery the sailors sing a peculiar 
melody without words. 
In the family of Gobiodez there is a section which consists of a 
small number of species characterised by their ventral fins being 
formed into a disc with all the rays undivided, as in the sea-snails 
(Ziparis), in which the lengthened body has but one long dorsal 
fin; the pectoral and ventrals forming a disc, as in LZ. barbatus (Fig. 
401), or the Suckers (Zepidogaster), where the pectorals and ventrals 
PP 
