er, for the spear-fish sometimes
rushes upon the boat, drowning the fisherman, or wounding him with its
terrible weapon. The fish becomes furious at the appearance of sharks,
which are its natural enemies. They engage in violent combats, and when
the spear-fish is attached to the fisherman's line it often receives
frightful wounds from the adversaries.

The spear-fish strikes vessels in the same manner as the swordfish. I am
indebted to Capt. William Spicer, of Noank, Connecticut, for this note:

Mr. William Taylor, of Mystic, a man seventy-six years old, who was
in the smack _Evergreen_, Capt. John Appleman, tells me that they
started from Mystic, October 3, 1832, on a fishing voyage to Key
West, in company with the smack _Morning Star_, Captain Rowland. On
the 12th were off Cape Hatteras, the winds blowing heavily from the
northeast, and the smack under double-reefed sails. At ten o'clock
in the evening they struck a woho, which shocked the vessel all
over. The smack was leaking badly, and they made a signal to the
_Morning_ _Star_ to keep close to them. The next morning they
found the leak, and both smacks kept off Charleston. On arrival
they took out the ballast, hove her out, and found that the sword
had gone through the planking, timber, and ceiling. The plank was
two inches thick, the timber five inches, and the ceiling
one-and-a-half-inch white oak. The sword projected two inches
through the ceiling, on the inside of the "after run." It struck by
a butt on the outside, which caused the leak. They took out and
replaced a piece of the plank, and proceeded on their voyage.

_The Sailfish_

The sailfish, _Histiophorus gladius_ (with _H. americanus_ and _H.
orientalis_, questionable species, and _H. pulchellus_ and _H.
immaculatus_, young), occurs in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Malay
Archipelago, and south at least as far as the Cape of Good Hope
(latitude 35 deg. S.); in the Atlantic on the coast of Brazil (latitude 30 deg.
S.) to the equator, and north to southern New England (latitude 42 deg. N.);
in the Pacific to southwestern Japan (latitude 30 deg. to 10 deg. N.). In a
general way the range may be said to be in tropical and temperate seas,
between latitude 30 deg. S. and 40 deg. N., and in the western parts of those
seas.

The first allusion to this genus occurs in Piso's _Historia Naturalis
Brasiliae_ printe