OSSEOUS FISHES. 
591 
nised at a glance from its organic structure, and from tlie resemblance 
of its prolonged horizontal and trenchant muzzle to the blade of a 
sword. With the ancients it was Solas', and Gladius ; with the 
moderns it is the sword-fish, the Dart, the Spece spada, and VEspadon 
epee. 
This fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean 
and Atlantic, in company with the tunny, from fire to six feet in 
length. Its body is lengthy, and covered with minute scales, the 
sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a 
single long dorsal fin ; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the 
mouth toothless, the upper part of the fish bluish-black, merging into 
silver beneath. It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards 
and against all the arm with which Nature has furnished it; it darts 
with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies; it 
attacks the whale; and there are numerous and well authenti- 
cated instances of ships being perforated by the jaw of this powerful 
creature. 
In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom of 
a ship, which had just returned from the Tropical seas, found the lance 
of a sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They declared 
that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and form to the 
same depth, would require eight or nine blows of a hammer weighing 
thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon it was evident that 
the fish had followed the ship while under full sail ; it had penetrated 
through the metal sheathing, and three inches and a half beyond, into 
the solid frame. 
The sword-fish has obstinate combats with the saw-fish, and even 
the shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a 
vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy. But this 
terrible jouster, this Paladin of the abyss, often becomes himself the 
prey of a most contemptible enemy. A miserable little parasite, the 
Pennatula ji.Jesa, penetrates its flesh, and almost drives it mad with pain. 
The flesh of the young sword-fish is white, compact, and of ex- 
cellent taste ; that of adults resembles the tunny. It is the object of 
a fishery of some importance in the Straits of Messina. The fisher- 
men of Messina and Eeggio join in this fishery with a great number of 
boats, carrying brilliant flambeaus, while one of the crew is stationed 
at the mast-head to announce the approach of the sword-fish. At a 
