st, and
September, cannot fail, on a favorable day, to come in sight of several
of them. Mr. Earll states that the fishermen of Portland never knew them
more abundant than in 1879. This is probably due in part to the fact
that the fishery there is of a very recent origin.

There is no evidence of any change in their abundance, either increase
or decrease. Fishermen agree that they are as plentiful as ever, nor can
any change be anticipated. The present mode does not destroy them in any
considerable numbers, each individual fish being the object of special
pursuit. The solitary habits of the species will always protect them
from wholesale capture, so destructive to schooling fish. Even if this
were not the case, the evidence proves that spawning swordfish do not
frequent our waters. When a female shad is killed, thousands of possible
young die also. The swordfish taken by our fishermen carry no such
precious burden.

"The small swordfish is very good meat," remarked Josselyn, in writing
of the fishes of England in the seventeenth century. Since Josselyn
probably never saw a young swordfish, unless at some time he had visited
the Mediterranean, it is fair to suppose that his information was
derived from some Italian writer.

It is, however, a fact that the flesh of the swordfish, though somewhat
oily, is a very acceptable article of food. Its texture is coarse; the
thick, fleshy, muscular layers cause it to resemble that of the halibut
in constituency. Its flavor is by many considered fine, and is not
unlike that of the bluefish. Its color is gray. The meat of the young
fish is highly prized on the Mediterranean, and is said to be perfectly
white, compact, and of delicate flavor. Swordfish are usually cut up
into steaks--thick slices across the body--and may be broiled or boiled.

The apparatus ordinarily employed for the capture of the swordfish is
simple in the extreme. It is the harpoon with the detachable head. When
the fish is struck, the head of the harpoon remains in the body of the
fish, and carries with it a light rope which is either made fast or held
by a man in a small boat, or is attached to some kind of a buoy, which
is towed through the water by the struggling fish, and which marks its
whereabouts after death.

The harpoon consists of a pole fifteen or sixteen feet in length,
usually of hickory or some other hard wood, upon which the bark has been
left, so that the harpooner may have a firmer hand-grip