allows himself
easily to be taken, but if this be true, it appears to be the case only
in the height of the breeding season, and is easily understood. I cannot
learn that two swordfish have ever been seen associated together in our
waters, though I have made frequent and diligent inquiry.

There is no inherent improbability, however, in this story regarding the
swordfish in Europe, for the same thing is stated by Professor Poey as
the result upon the habits of _Tetrapturus_.

The only individual of which we have the exact measurements was taken
off Saconnet, Rhode Island, July 23, 1874. This was seven feet seven
inches long, weighing one hundred and thirteen pounds. Another, taken
off No Man's Land, July 20, 1875, and cast in plaster for the collection
of the National Museum, weighed one hundred and twenty pounds and
measured about seven feet. Another, taken off Portland, August 15, 1878,
was 3,999 millimeters long and weighed about six hundred pounds. Many of
these fish doubtless attain the weight of four and five hundred pounds,
and some perhaps grow to six hundred; but after this limit is reached, I
am inclined to believe larger fish are exceptional. Newspapers are fond
of recording the occurrence of giant fish, weighing one thousand pounds
and upward, and old sailors will in good faith describe the enormous
fish which they saw at sea, but could not capture; but one
well-authenticated instance of accurate weighing is much more valuable.
The largest one ever taken by Capt. Benjamin Ashby, for twenty years a
swordfish fisherman, was killed on the shoals back of Edgartown,
Massachusetts. When salted it weighed six hundred and thirty-nine
pounds. Its live weight must have been as much as seven hundred and
fifty or eight hundred. Its sword measured nearly six feet. This was an
extraordinary fish among the three hundred or more taken by Captain
Ashby in his long experience. He considers the average size to be about
two hundred and fifty pounds dressed, or five hundred and twenty-five
alive. Captain Martin, of Gloucester, estimated the average size at
three to four hundred pounds. The largest known to Captain Michaux
weighed six hundred and twenty-eight. The average about Block Island he
considers to be two hundred pounds.

The size of the smallest swordfish taken on our eastern coast is a
subject of much deeper interest, for it throws light on the time and
place of breeding. There is some difference of testimony regardi