SANTA CATALIIfA ISLAND SWOEDFISH 



plank was two inches thick, the timber five inches, the ceiling one 

 and a half inches of white oak. The ship Fortune of Plymouth, 

 Mass, had an extraordinary experience. She was struck by a 

 big swordfish, the weapon breaking off, not causing a leak. 

 This sword first penetrated the copper sheathing, then an inch 

 undersheathing, a three-inch plank of hard wood, then a solid 

 white oak timber, twelve inches thick, then a two and one-haK inch 

 hard oak ceiling, finally entering the head of an oil cask where it 

 remained. Almost any dockyard can provide remarkable 

 reports. 



On the Florida coast there are several swordfishes which are 

 game fishes in every sense, particularly the sailfish, Istiophorus- 

 nigricans, or Black swordfish. It ranges up to six or eight feet 

 and to one hundred and fifty pounds. In general appearance it 

 has the high domed forehead of the Santa Catahna fish. When it 

 reaches the surface it elevates its dorsal fin, which is an enormous 

 sail-Uke organ of great beauty, boomed out by many rays. The sail 

 is blue with black spots — a most beautiful object, which the fish 

 can lower or ' set ' at pleasure. The fish is taken with tarpon tackle 

 by trolling from a launch or sailboat, and when hooked wiU leap 

 and make a spectacular fight. Palm Beach is a favourite place j 

 also Long Key to the south, one of the finest anghng resorts ia 

 Florida, where over one hundred of these fishes were taken in the 

 spring of 1912. 



StiU another swordfish, T. imperator, is found in the Atlantic 

 about the West India Islands. The largest of the swordfishes is 

 found near Madagascar ia the Indian Ocean. The Araerican 

 consul, Mr. Nicholas Pite, told me of specimens twenty-five feet 

 in length, one of which leaped over a native proa passing through 

 the sail. This fish had a dorsal fin of extraordinary size, eight 

 or ten feet high, giving it the appearance at a distance of some 

 beautiful oriental craft. Doubtless aU the fishes of this striking 

 group may be included under the head of game fishes. 



The angler desiring to try a bout with these doughty swords- 

 men of the sea wiU find facilities for the capture of the sailfish 



93 



