ng the
average size, but all fishermen with whom I have talked agree that very
small ones do not find their way into our shore waters. Numerous very
small specimens have, however, been already taken by the Fish Commission
at sea, off our middle and southern coast.

Capt. John Rowe has seen one which did not weigh more than seventy-five
pounds when taken out of the water.

Capt. R. H. Hurlbert killed near Block Island, in July, 1877, one which
weighed fifty pounds and measured about two feet without its sword.

Captain Ashby's smallest weighed about twenty-five pounds when dressed;
this he killed off No Man's Land. He tells me that a Bridgeport smack
had one weighing sixteen pounds (or probably twenty-four when alive),
and measuring eighteen inches without its sword.

In August, 1878, a small specimen of the mackerel-shark, _Lamna
cornubica_, was captured at the mouth of Gloucester Harbor. In its
nostril was sticking a sword, about three inches long, of a young
swordfish. When this was pulled out the blood flowed freely, indicating
that the wound was recent. The fish to which this sword belonged cannot
have exceeded ten or twelve inches in length. Whether the small
swordfish met with its misfortune in our waters, or whether the shark
brought this trophy from beyond the sea, is an unsolved problem.

Lutken speaks of a very young individual taken in the Atlantic, latitude
32 deg. 50' N., 74 deg. 19' W. This must be about one hundred and fifty miles
southeast of Cape Hatteras.

For many years from three to six hundred of these fish have been taken
annually on the New England coast. It is not unusual for twenty-five or
more to be seen in the course of a single day's cruising, and sometimes
as many as this are visible from the masthead at one time. Captain Ashby
saw twenty at one time, in August, 1889, between Georges Banks and the
South Shoals. One Gloucester schooner, _Midnight_, Capt. Alfred Wixom,
took fourteen in one day on Georges Banks in 1877.

Capt. John Rowe obtained twenty barrels, or four thousand pounds, of
salt fish on one trip to Georges Banks; this amount represents twenty
fish or more. Captain Ashby has killed one hundred and eight swordfish
in one year; Capt. M. C. Tripp killed about ninety in 1874.

Such instances as these indicate in a general way the abundance of the
swordfish. A vessel cruising within fifty miles of our coast, between
Cape May and Cape Sable, during the months of June, July, Augu