352 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



the bony weapon of the Sword-fish. The force with which it must have been driven in affords a 

 striking exemplification of the power and ferocity of the fish. The 'Priscilla' is quite a new 

 vessel. Captain Taylor, her commander, states that when near the Azores, as he was walking the 

 quarter-deck at night, a shock was felt which brought all hands from below, under the impression 

 that the ship had touched iipon some rock. This was, no doubt, when the occurrence took place." 



The l^evf York Herald of May 11, 1871, states: 



"The English ship 'Queensberry' has been struck by a Sword fish, which penetrated to a 

 depth of thirty inches, causing a leak which necessitated the discharge of the cargo." 



The "London Daily News of December" 11, 1868, contained the following paragraph, which 

 emanated, I suspect, from the pen of Prof. E. A. Proctor : 



"Last Wednesday the court of common pleas — rather a strange place, by the by, for inquiring 

 into the natural history of fishes — was engaged for several hours in trying to determine under 

 what circumstances a Sword-fish might be able to escape scot-free after thrusting his snout into 

 the side of a ship. The gallant ship 'Dreadnought,' thoroughly repaired and classed Al at Lloyd's, 

 had been insured for £3,000 against all the risks of the seas. She sailed on March 10, 1864, from 

 Colombo, for London. Three days later the crew, while fishing, hooked a Sword-fish. Xiphias, 

 however, broke the line, and a few moments after leaped half out of the water, with the object, it 

 should seem, of taking a look at his persecutor, the ' Dreadnought.' Probably he satisfied himself 

 that the enemy was some abnormally large cetacean, which it was his natural duty to attack forth- 

 with. Be this as it may, the attack was made, and at four o'clock the next morning the captain was 

 awakened with the unwelcome intelligence that the ship had sprung a leak. She was taken back 

 to Colombo, and thence to Cochin, where she was "hove down. Near the keel was found a round 

 hole, an inch in diameter, running completely through the copper sheathing and planking. 



"As attacks by Sword-fish are included among sea-risks, the insurance company was willing 

 to pay the damages claimed by the owners of the ship if only it could be proved that the hole had 

 really been made by a Sword-fish. No instance had ever been recorded in which a Sword-fish had 

 been able to withdraw his sword after attacking a ship. A defense was founded on the possibility 

 that the hole had been made in some other way. Professor Owen and Mr. Frank Buckland gave 

 their evidence, but neither of them could state quite positively whether a Sword-fish which had 

 passed its beak through three inches of stout planking could withdraw without the loss of its 

 sword. Mr. Buckland said that fish have no power of 'backing,' and expressed his belief that he 

 could hold a Sword-fish by the beak; but then he admitted that the fish had considerable lateral 

 power, and might so 'wriggle its sword out of the hole.' And so the insurance company will have 

 to pay nearly £600 because an ill-tempered fish objected to be hooked, and took it srevenge by 

 running full tilt against copper sheathing and oak planking." 



"The Gloucester schooner ' Wyoming,' on a last trip to George's Banks," records the 'New York 

 World' of August 31 , 1875, " was attacked by a Sword-fish in the night-time. He assailed the vessel 

 with great force, and succeeded in putting his sword through one of her planks some two feet, and, 

 after making fearful struggles to extricate himself, broke his sword off, leaving it hard and fast in 

 the plank, and made a speedy departure. Fortunate was it that he did not succeed in drawing 

 out his sword, as the aperture would undoubtedly have made a leak sufiacient to sink the vessel. 

 As it was, she leaked badly, requiring pretty lively pumping to keep her free." 



Another instance of a similar nature is this, which was recorded in the "Liverpool Mercury" 

 about the year 1876 : 



" Mr. J. J. Harwood, master of the British brigantine ' Fortunate,' in dock at Liverpool, reports 

 that whilst on his passage from the Eio Grande, when in latitude 20° 12' north and longitude 47° 



