ish 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 swordfish 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 rubbed the skin off his knuckles by striking them against the
ceiling of his bunk when he raised his arms to thrust the harpoon into
visionary monster swordfishes.

_The Spear-fish or Bill-fish_

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 10 deg. to 20 deg. N.) to
southern England (latitude 40 deg. N.); in the eastern Atlantic, from
Gibraltar (latitude 45 deg. N.) to the Cape of Good Hope (latitude 30 deg. S.)
in the Indian Ocean, the Malay Archipelago, New Zealand (latitude 40 deg.
S.), and on the west coast of Chile and Peru. In a general way, the
range is between latitude 40 deg. N. and latitude 40 deg. S.

The species of _Tetrapturus_ which we have been accustomed to call _T.
albidus_, abundant about Cuba, is not very usual on the coast of
southern New England. Several are taken every year by the swordfish
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 Georges Banks.

The Mediterranean spear-fish, _Tetrapturus balone_, appears to be a
landlocked form, never passing west of the Straits of Gibraltar.

The spear-fish in our waters is said by our fishermen to resemble the
swordfish in its movements and manner of feeding. Professor Poey
narrates that both the Cuban species swim at a depth of one hundred
fathoms, and they journey in pairs, shaping their course toward the Gulf
of Mexico, the females being full of eggs. Only adults are taken. It is
not known whence they come, or where they breed, or how the young
return. It is not even known whether the adult fish return by the same
route. When the fish has swallowed the hook it rises to the surface,
making prodigious leaps and plunges. At last it is dragged to the boat,
secured with a boat-hook, and beaten to death before it is hauled on
board. Such fishing is not without dang