instances were
related to me in which these fish had thrown themselves from the water
into rowboats, a feat which might be very easily performed by a lithe,
active species like the _Trichiurus_. A small one fell into a boat
crossing the mouth of the Arlington River, where the water is nearly
fresh.

Many individuals of the same species are taken every year at the mouth
of the St. John's River at Mayport. Stearn states that they are caught
in the deep waters of the bays about Pensacola, swimming nearly at the
surface, but chiefly with hooks and lines from the wharves. He has known
them to strike at the oars of the boat and at the end of the ropes that
trailed in the water. At Pensacola they reach a length of twenty to
thirty inches, and are considered good food fish. Richard Hill states
that in Jamaica this species is much esteemed, and is fished for
assiduously in a "hole," as it is called--that is, a deep portion of the
waters off Fort Augusta. This is the best fishing-place for the
cutlass-fish, _Trichiurus_. The fishing takes place before day; all
lines are pulled in as fast as they are thrown out, with the certainty
that the cutlass has been hooked. As many as ninety boats have been
counted on this fishing-ground at daybreak during the season.

X

THE GLADIATOR OF THE SEA

Three summers in Catalina waters I had tried persistently to capture my
first broadbill swordfish; and so great were the chances against me that
I tried really without hope. It was fisherman's pride, I imagined,
rather than hope that drove me. At least I had a remarkably keen
appreciation of the defeats in store for any man who aspired to
experience with that marvel of the sea--_Xiphius gladius_, the broadbill
swordsman.

On the first morning of my fourth summer, 1917, I was up at five. Fine,
cool, fresh, soft dawn with a pale pink sunrise. Sea rippling with an
easterly breeze. As the sun rose it grew bright and warm. We did not get
started out on the water until eight o'clock. The east wind had whipped
up a little chop that promised bad. But the wind gradually died down and
the day became hot. Great thunderheads rose over the mainland,
proclaiming heat on the desert. We saw scattered sheerwater ducks and a
school of porpoises; also a number of splashes that I was sure were made
by swordfish.

The first broadbill I sighted had a skinned tail, and evidently had been
in a battle of some kind. We circled him three times with flying-fi