SWORDFISH 



Star to keep close to them. The next morning they found the 

 leak, and both smacks kept oflE Charleston. On arrival they 

 took out the ballast, hove her out, and found that the sword 

 had gone through the planking, timber, and ceiling. The plank 

 was two inches thick, the timber five inches, and the ceiling one- 

 and-a-half-inch white oak. The sword projected two inches 

 through the ceiling, on the inside of the "after run." It struck 

 by a butt on the outside, which caused the leak. They took 

 out and replaced a piece of the plank, and proceeded on their 

 voyage. ' 



The Sailfish 



The sailfish, Histiophorus gladius (with H. ameri- 

 canus and H. orientalis, questionable species, and H. 

 pulchellus and H. immaculatus, young), occurs in 

 the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Malay Archipel- 

 ago, and south at least as far as the Cape of 

 Good Hope (latitude 35° S.) ; in the Atlantic on the 

 coast of Brazil (latitude 30° S.) to the equator, and 

 north to southern New England (latitude 42° N.); 

 in the Pacific to southwestern Japan (latitude 30° 

 to 10° N.). In a general way the range may be 

 said to be in tropical and temperate seas, between 

 latitude 30° S. and 40° N., and in the western parts 

 of those seas. 



The first allusion to this genus occurs in Piso's 

 Historia Naturalis Brasilim printed in Amsterdam in 

 1648. In this book may be found an identical, though 

 rough, figure of the American species, accompanied 

 by a few lines of description, which, though good, 

 when the fact that they were written in the seven- 

 teenth century is brought to mind, are of no value 

 for critical comparison. 



The name given to the Brazilian sailfish by Marc- 



175 



