Ten Cents a Copy. \ NEW YORK, THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 17, 1876. \ 17 Chatham8t!(CilyHdlBjir.) 
For Forest and Stream. 
THE FISH AND THE GOLD RING. 
[An Incident of the loss of the steamship Anglo Saxon oil Cape Race, 
Newfoundland.] 
FISHER'S skiff rocked lazily 
Off rough Newfoundland's coast, - 
O’er her the clouds drooped hazily 
Like banners of a host. 
The fisher kept his weary watch, 
And plied his dripping lines, 
And anxious eyed the scanty catch 
Bis tiny bark coniines. 
The day was done—dull evening came— 
For home the toiler left, 
Where soon by his industrious dame 
Each fish was deftly cleft. 
When to! from out the offal slid 
A rihg of finest gold; 
Strange that such uncouth casket, hid 
An heirloom quaint and old I 
Weird things transpire beneath the allies, 
Store weird within the deep; 
Known only to those sapient eyes 
That ward and vigil keep. 
Of this Occnrence naught but guess, 
For none the secret knew, 
Till on the pinions of the press 
Across the wave it flew. 
A stranger to Newfoundland hied; 
When he the circlet saw, 
"My loug lost mother's ring," he criod, 
And, wonderihg, stood in awe! 
Oh, God-1 in sunshine and in storm 
Tby guiding hand we trace; 
Who gave this frail memorial from • 
Ton stormy Bleep Cape Race I 
Fall fifty pounds our fisher got; 
God’s ways are wonderous wise; 
To Him a ne'er forget mc-nol— 
A blessing in disguise I A. M. 
For Forest and Stream. 
. S mol tS f/ 'C Jii uirf J 'ish. 
C LOSELY connected, and quite as valuable ag the 
mackerel, in a financial and game point of view, is 
the sword fish, (Xipluas glomus ), and it was our pleasure 
and good fortune this Summer to take a hand in this sport 
and see liow it is done on our coast off the Vineyard. Be¬ 
fore speaking of the mode of capture, or excitement of 
the sport, it would be well, perhaps, to take a look at some 
of the peculiarities of our game. As they are seen swim¬ 
ming along the surface they present an appearance not un¬ 
like the great white shark, and entirely unlike their fourth 
cousins, the timid mackerel. Graceful in form, like some 
natty marine privateer, they move along, "armed to the 
teeth" in stern reality, and evidently conscious of their 
great power. From the upper jaw shoots the sharp wea¬ 
pon from which they derive their name, aDd its power can 
only he appreciated when felt or seen. 
In the Mediterranean Sea it grows to a length of six or 
eight feet, and is frequently found on our coast lengthened 
far beyond that. The scales are extremely minute, and 
from the back juts a huge dorsal fin that often causes it to 
he mistaken for itsrival, the shark. The tail is keeled, the 
lower jaw sharp, as if trying to keep pace with its neigh¬ 
bor, but had failed, and was determined to be savage even 
in its diminutiveness. The mouth is as toothless as one 
could wish, and the thought strikes you that the one great 
tooth or sword had drawn all the succulent or toothy mat¬ 
ter from its jaws, and its power had been condensed in one 
great arm. The upper part of the body is a beautiful 
bluish-black, now striped or spotted with brown, or shaded 
with lhe same, and a3 it shoots along now bursting the wa¬ 
tery doors, and rushing through the frightened air, the sil¬ 
very stomach and dark back comes into bold contrast, and 
show it as a beautiful member of the finny race, as well as 
a savage enemy to all creation. On the southeastern part 
of Massachusetts, round the heel of old Cape Cod, seems 
to be a Eavorite hunting ground for them. Ilere they chase 
the timid mackerel and smaller fishes, devouring them 
without the first thought of the bond of relationship; and 
here it is that the fiishermen “most do congregate.” Ly 
ingall night in the jolly harbor of Wood’s Ilole we had 
ample time to prepare for the fport, and by three o’clock 
sharp our little sloop was swinging around and gathering 
her self together, headed for Gay’s Head. The vessel was 
a common sloop of about sixty tons, and the only peculi¬ 
arity being a stanchion rigged on the extreme end of the 
bowsprit, and a curved top to hold the “harpooner.” At 
nine o’clock we were out* of sight of the fair Vineyard. 
The wind settling, I was informed that I could go aft and 
use my weeither eye, and the better I used it the more fish 
we would get, and after not a few attempts to climb n 
greaay pole of a mast, I found myself aloft, with a firm 
grasp on the throat of the gaff, my weather eye, con 
trary to orders, full of tar, aDd my port one on the qui 
vine for the game. We were just moving along, and I was 
taking in the horizon for miles around, when the man at 
the bow gave a sort of cross between a cluck and a groan, 
which I ssaw meant “port," and that something had been 
sighted. 'The oldcraft lazily fell away, and I then saw two 
dank forms, with their razor-like fins out of- the water, 
slowly moving along ahead of us. The Cap winked at 
once to como down, and as I reached the deck the fun 
commenced. Tito man waited until we were afmost upon 
them, and as one of them turned as if in idle curiosity to 
see what the great shadow meant, he hurled the spear, and 
the next moment the huge *fish as if with a yell of rage, 
sprang from the water, and with a furious twist tried to 
shake out the iron. So great was the effort that it fell with 
a crash on its side, and for a moment was still—but it was 
only for a second. The line jumped into activity and 
rushed out so that you could not follow it, now swaying to 
aDd fro and making the water fly like rain. About fifty 
feet of liue had gone out, and we all took hold to take our 
turn, and at last six of us managed to get a fair hold and 
attempted a trial of strength, and if six individuals were 
ever jerked around in a more vivacious manner they have 
my utmost sympathies. Now he would land us all togeth¬ 
er in a lump; then slacken up and take us unawares; throw 
us to the deck witli a force that fully came up to my pre¬ 
conceived ideas of the "sport,'’ and would undoubtedly 
have dragged us all over, if the rope had not been sure aud 
fast. This sort of fun was kept up for about fifteen min¬ 
utes, when he perceptibly weakened, and the long rushes 
to the right and left grew weaker and weaker, until we ven¬ 
tured to haul in, aud as the Cap said ho had pulled at 
everything from "old Jersey * * * to Gov. "plug," and this 
was the hardest one of all. But science will tell, and at 
last we had the brute alongside. The iron had entered near 
the tail, and run parallel with the body towards the head, 
and as we hauled him up, twisting and cutting with rage, 
one of the men, iu a very artistic manner, cut him across 
the tail with a bar, and the day was ours. A rope was then 
rigged from the peak and fastened around the long sword, 
and we all gave a “long pull and a short one” and the 
monster rolled aboard the sloop Roaring Simlet, and jerked 
a salute with his huge sword to Capt. Busby, sole owner 
thereof. We measured our game, and the line gave us 
nine feet six inches, and though I have frequently caught 
sharks that measured thirteen feet, I never saw any one to 
show near "the strength of this peculiar creature, We 
cruised about all day iu this vicinity, and succeeded in cap¬ 
turing three more, varying from Six to nine feet; and as 
we turned for the Hole I felt that I had well earned my 
experience, but would still advise the uninitiated to try it. 
A six months’course at the gymnasium is taken in an 
hour, and Indian clubs are at a disoount, while as for a 
Turkish bath you have a novel one, aad it would.surprise 
the first Turk at the mauner in which you are enabled to 
dissolve and at the same time wound up and rubbed to¬ 
gether—and all this for the small price of trying to haul in 
a sword fish, 
In Messina and Reggio the fisheries are carried on in very 
much the same way, except that the boat is propelled by 
oars, and a large flambeaux is carried ahead to attract them. 
During the fishing the crew chant a slow dirge, that is sup¬ 
posed to charm his fishship and coax him to destruction, as 
did the mermaids to ourselves ages ago. 
Many incidents have happened from this fish mistaking 
vessels for a foe,'and when enraged they rush blindly 
Ahead with a force that is truly wonderful, Ospiumtbus 
speaks of him: “He summons to his instant aid the oft- 
tried powers of his trusty blade, selects some boat, and 
runs his puissant sword full many an inch within the fatal 
board." 
In 1868 the result of an attack like this formed a sub¬ 
ject for the action of courts of law in England, as insur¬ 
ance was refused lo a vessel injured by one of them. It 
seems that the Dreadnought, a first-class merchant ship, 
left a foreign port in perfect repair, and on the afternoon 
of the third day a “monstrous creature” was seen sporting 
among the waves, and lines and hooks were thrown over 
by the captain to capture it. All efforts to this effect 
failed. The fish got away, and in the night time the ves¬ 
sel was reported as leuking dangerously. The captain was 
compelled to return to the harbor from which he had 
sailed, and the damage was attributed to a sword fish 
Iwelve feet long, which had assailed the ship below the 
water line, perforated her planks and timbers, and imperil¬ 
ed Iter safety on the ocean. Prof. Owen, the distinguished 
naturalist, was called upon at the trial to give evidence as 
to the probability of such an occurrence, and the force, if 
such was tlio case, and he related several cases illustrating 
the immense power of the fish, and as regards the striking 
force, st.ated that "it strikes with the accumulated force of 
fifteen double-handed hammers. Its velocity is equal to 
that of a swivel shot, and is as dangerous iu its effects as a 
heavy artillery projectile." Capt. Wilson, of the ship Hal¬ 
ifax, iu referring to their strength, says: “I had abandoned 
all idea of taking the fishluutil by great good luck it made 
for the land, an 11 made another attempt, aud having about 
three hundred feet of rope in the boat we succeeded in 
making a running bowline knot around the sword of the 
fish, and this we fortunately made fast to the shore. When 
the fish found itself secured it plunged so violently that 
I could not prevail on any one to go near it. The appear¬ 
ance it presented was truly awful. I immediately weut 
aboard a Lima packet and got the assistance of Iter crew 
to a man. By the time we returned the fish was less violent. 
We hauled upon the Det again and made fast three hundred 
feet of rope, and although we mustered thirty men, we 
could not move the creature an inch. By this time we got 
about a hundred negroes from a plantation, and we hauled 
nearly the whole day before the fish became exhausted. 
OiS endeavoring to raise it it became most desperate, sweep¬ 
ing with its sword from side, to side, so that we were com¬ 
pelled to get stronger ropes, fearing he might cut us in 
pieces. It was fortunate that it came on belly upj as one 
of Its strokes would have cut the boat in halves. After se¬ 
curing it one of the men jumped upou its hack, and at a 
great risk cut through Its tail, and animation was complete¬ 
ly suspended. It was then measured, and found to be 
twenty-one feet long and eight feet broad, aud weighed 
nearly five tons.” Quite large enough to sink one of our 
largest vessels. I saw a vessel some days ago that came 
into New Bedford in a leaking condition, and upon haul¬ 
ing her up a broken sword was found, and after unloading 
everything it was found to have penetrated the copper 
sheeting, and then through the hull and inner ceiling of 
yellow pine, and the extreme end was found hard and fast 
in the oak end of a spare najl keg that happened to lay in 
a position to.receive it. 
Here, perhaps, is an explanalion to some of the disap¬ 
pearances that are so frequently heard of. Yessi is set sail 
and »re hever heard from, and in many cases perhaps the 
injuries inflicted by these monsters of the deep have proved 
fatal. Powerful as are these fish, they have one enemy that 
is always present, and equally as powerful as man in its 
effects. It is the little parusite, (Pcnnatula Jileiicij, and when- 
