OPAHS. 
121 
In Sweden the Swordfish is taken only occasionally, 
or it becomes stranded on a sandbank or a shelving 
beach, having ventured too near shore in search of 
food. But in the Mediterranean, especially off the coast 
of Sicily, and in North America, it is fished for with 
great vigour and no small profit, for its flesh is greatly 
valued. It is often harpooned from a boat or from a 
ship’s bowsprit, where the Americans have a special place 
for the harpooner to stand. The Italians set watchmen 
on the cliffs to give the fishing-boats notice of the 
approach of the Swordfish, and in the boats they keep 
a look-out from the mast-head. As the Swordfish often 
swims at the surface, sometimes so high that the top 
of the dorsal fin projects above the water, it is easily 
caught sight of. The fishing has a dash of the charm 
of whaling, for it cannot be considered altogether free 
from danger, when the Swordfish at full speed takes 
out the line to the very end, and when we remember 
how many tales there are of the assaults it makes in 
selfdefence upon a boat. The Swordfish is also taken with 
hook and line, but, as in the mackerel-net and madrague, 
more seldom. Brown-Goode mentions the capture of 
a Swordfish on a long-line set for Halibut, at a,s great 
a depth as 275 fathoms. 
Fam. lampridibae. 
Form of the body high, compressed, ovcd. Eyes of average size. External hones of the head with smooth edges". 
Scales small, thin , cycloid, and deciduous; in the pectoral region somewhat larger than in the other parts of 
the body. Spinous-ray ed part of the dorsal and anal fins extremely short. No finlets. No free spinous ray in 
front of the anal fin. No jaw-teeth , but strong, pointed pharyngeal teeth. Jaws short and. about equal in length. 
Supra occipital crest high and continued forward over the frontal and ethmoid bones. Base of the pectoral fins 
horizontal. Ventral fins thoracic, though set fairly far back, with from 14 to 17 rays. Gill-openings large: 
branchiostegal membranes free at the isthmus. Branchiostegal rays 6 (or 7?). Branched rays in the caudal fin 
about 17. Vertebrae from 43 to 48, the 22nd of 
Gill 6 founded a separate family, Lamprididce, 
within the group Scombroidea, to receive the single 
genus that represents this family, while Moreau c has 
given the same definition to a sub-family, Lamprini, 
within the family of the Scombridae. These arrange- 
ments may be regarded as distinctions without a real 
difference. 
The relation of this family to the preceding ones 
is expressed in several characters which indicate the 
highest stage of the metamorphosis which prevails among 
several Scombromorph families. Among these characters 
are the disappearance of the jaw-teeth, the horizontal 
base of the pointed, falciform, pectoral fins, which in 
form resemble the ventral fins and the anterior part 
of the dorsal fin, and the absence of the anterior, spi- 
nous-rayed dorsal. To these we may add another 
character, however, which is more indicative of a lower 
stage of development, namely, the large number of 
a Juvenile stage unknown. 
b Arr. Fam. Fish., Smiths. Misc. Coll., No. 247, p. 9. 
c Hist. Nat. Poiss. Fr., tome 2, p. 483. 
which (taking the latter number ) bears the last ribs. 
rays in the ventral fins, which are set comparatively 
far back. Their situation is indeed due to their close 
connexion with the shoulder-girdle, which is much 
developed posteriorly, and has thus removed the ventral 
fins with it. But the pelvic bones, though large, are 
hung, not, as is generally the case, on the clavicle, 
but on the high and broad coracoid bones. Another 
peculiarity of the pectoral fins is the anoinalopterous 
character of their basal bones, the first three of which 
are low, and united with the scapular bones — the 
first of all completely, without the least visible suture; 
the other two retaining the suture — the last higher, 
but still broad, and closely united by a. cartilage with 
the third basal bone and also with the coracoid bone. 
The glenoid surfaces of the first two basal bones are 
sharply convex, thus indicating unusual power in the 
perpendicular motions of the pectoral fins; the surface 
of the last two, on the other hand, is concave, to re- 
Scandinavion Fishes. 
16 
