84 Proceedmgs of the Neuport Natural History Society. 
the boat’s signal is seen and the steamer is soon alongside 
it, and the monster is hoisted, tail first, safely on board 
where we may admire him at leisure. 
I was once fortunate enough to see three large sword¬ 
fish thus taken in one day. The best single day’s record 
of the Ocean View , Captain Dodge tells me, is eighteen fish 
and her best season’s record two hundred and two. 
It often happens that the fish is not quite dead when 
brought on bbard, and then a curious phenomenon occurs. 
At the moment that the fish dies a certain pallor may be 
seen rapidly spreading over his entire surface, so that his 
whole body has the color and metallic appearance of mol¬ 
ten lead; this color gradually dies away and the original 
color of the skin returns, the shade of black, however, 
now taking on a somewhat bluish tinge while the white re¬ 
mains as before. I have observed a similar appearance in 
other fish: a dying black-bass, for instance, will suddenly 
turn of a very light yellowish green and in a few moments 
his former color will return. 
But no more “little black sails” are to be seen and 
we are far from home and must return, so we direct our 
bows northward and proceed. As we approach the island 
a breeze springs up, and soon we meet a fleet of sail-boats 
coming out after blue-fish. Let us join them tomorrow 
and try a change of sport. We enter the harbor and land 
again, safe and sound, having enjoyed a day of novel ex¬ 
perience and seen many strange sights. 
Note. Since the above was written — in 1897 — a 
change has taken place in the sword-fishing at Block Island. 
For the last two years these fish seem to have deserted 
their former haunts southward of the island and to have 
moved father eastward to the vicinity of No Man’s Land 
and Martha’s Vineyard. Neither are they so plentiful as 
they were three or four years ago, probably because of 
some lack in the supply of smaller fish upon which they 
feed. In 1899 the blue-fish, also, were scarce in Block Is¬ 
land waters. The Ocean View , too, has been sold and de¬ 
voted to other uses so that this sport, once so popular 
among summer visitors, can now no longer be enjoyed. 
