on Georges Banks.

But little is known regarding their time and place of breeding. They are
said to deposit their eggs in large quantities on the coasts of Sicily,
and European writers give their spawning-time occurring the latter part
of spring and the beginning of summer. In the Mediterranean they occur
of all sizes from four hundred pounds down, and the young are so
plentiful as to become a common article of food.

M. Raymond, who brought to Cuvier a specimen of aistiophorn four inches
long, taken in January, 1829, in the Atlantic, between the Cape of Good
Hope and France, reported that there were good numbers of young sailfish
in the place where this was taken.

Meunier, quoting Spollongain, states that the swordfish does not
approach the coast of Sicily except in the season of reproduction; the
males are then seen pursuing the females. It is a good time to capture
them, for when the female has been taken the male lingers near and is
easily approached. The fish are abundant in the Straits of Messina from
the middle of April to the middle of September; early in the season they
hug the Calabrian shore, approaching from the north; after the end of
June they are most abundant on the Sicilian shore, approaching from the
south.

From other circumstances, it seems certain that there are
spawning-grounds in the seas near Sicily and Genoa, for from November
to the 1st of March young ones are taken in the Straits of Messina,
ranging in weight from half a pound to twelve pounds.

In the Mediterranean, as has been already stated, the young fish are
found from November to March, and here from July to the middle of
September the male fish are seen pursuing the female over the shoals,
and at this time the males are easily taken. Old swordfish fishermen,
Captain Ashby and Captain Kirby, assure me that on our coast, out of
thousands of specimens they have taken, they have never seen one
containing eggs. I have myself dissected several males, none of which
were near breeding-time. In the European waters they are said often to
be seen swimming in pairs, male and female. Many sentimental stories
were current, especially among the old writers, concerning the conjugal
affection and unselfish devotion of the swordfish, but they seem to have
originated in the imaginative brain of the naturalist rather than in his
perceptive faculties. It is said that when the female fish is taken the
male seems devoid of fear, approaches the boat, and