AMERICAN FISHES. 
252 
partakes more of the nature of the chase. There is no slow or careful 
baiting and patient waiting, and no disappointment caused by the acci¬ 
dental capture of worthless “bait-stealers.” The game is seen and 
followed, and outwitted by wary tactics, and killed by strength of arm and 
skill. The Sword-fish is a powerful antagonist, sometimes, and sends his 
pursuers’ vessel into harbor leaking, and almost sinking, from injuries 
which he has inflicted. I have known a vessel to be struck by wounded 
Sword-fish as many as twenty times in a season. There is even the spice 
of personal danger to give savor to the chase, for the men are occasionally 
injured by the infuriated fish. One of Capt. Ashby’s crew was severely- 
wounded by a Sword-fish which thrust his beak through the oak floor of a 
boat on which he was standing, and penetrated about two inches in his 
naked heel. The strange fascination draws men to this pursuit when they 
have once learned its charms. An old Swords-fisherman, who had followed 
the pursuit for twenty years, told me that when he was on the cruising 
ground, he fished all night in his dreams, and that many a time he has 
bruised his hands and rubbed the skin off his knuckles by striking them 
against the ceiling of his bunk when he raised his arms to thrust the har¬ 
poon into visionary monster Sword-fishes. 
The Bill-fish or Spear-fish, Tetrapturus indicus (with various related 
forms, which may or may not be specifically identical) occurs in the Western 
Atlantic from the West Indies, latitude io° to 20° N., to Southern New 
England, latitude 42 0 N.; in the Eastern Atlantic, from Gibralter, latitude 
45 0 N., to the Cape of Good Hope, latitude 30° S.; in the Indian Ocean, 
the Malay Archipelago, New Zealand, latitude 40° S., and on the west 
coast of Chila and Peru. In a general way, the range is between latitude 
40° N., and latitude 40° S. 
The species of Tetrapturus which we have been accustomed to call T. 
albidus , abundant about Cuba, is not very unusual on the coast of 
Southern New England. Several are taken every year by the Sword-fish 
fishermen. I have not known of their capture along the Southern Atlantic 
coast of the United States. All I have known about were taken between 
Sandy Hook and the eastern part of George’s Banks. 
The Mediterranean Spear-fish, Tetrapturus belone , appears to be a land¬ 
locked form, never passing west of the Straits of Gibralter. 
The Spear-fish in our waters is said by our fishermen to resemble the 
Sword-fish in its movements and manner of feeding. Prof. Poey narrates 
