A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes / including mammals, birds and fishes

by Phebe Westcott Humphreys

THE SWORD-FISH.

SWORD FISH SPEARING HIS PREY.

The Sword-fish, so called from the upper jaw being elongated into a formidable spear or sword, was known to the ancients, and has borne this name which recalls its important characteristic, from very early times. And while the Saw-fish, which belongs to the group of Cartilaginous Fishes, and a species of Sword-whale, have also been known as Sword-fishes, this species—scientifically known as Xiphias gladius—is the real, and the original Sword-fish.

This Fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic from five to six feet in length. Its body is covered with minute scales, the sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a single long dorsal fin; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the mouth toothless, the upper part of the Fish bluish-black, merging into silver beneath.

It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards and against all the arm with which nature has furnished it; it darts with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies; it attacks the Whale; and there are numerous and well authenticated instances of ships being perforated by the jaw of this powerful creature, while the toothed spear of the Saw-fish has been found fast in the body of a Whale which it has pierced.

In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom of a ship, which had just returned from the Tropical seas, found the lance of a Sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They declared that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and form to the same depth, would require eight or nine blows of a hammer weighing thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon it was evident that the Fish had followed the ship while under full sail; it had penetrated through the metal sheathing, and three inches and a half beyond, into the solid frame.

The Sword-fish has obstinate combats with the Saw-fish, and even the Shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy.