Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
STONE-FISH.
A species of scorpion-fish dreaded on account of its poisonous spines.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
TASSEL-FISH.
Valued for the isinglass it yields.
Though forming but a single small family, the Sword-fishes are nevertheless to be reckoned amongst the most interesting of living fishes. Attaining a length of from 12 to 15 feet, exceeding vigilant, pugnacious, and powerful, they are amongst the most formidable of all fishes. They derive their name from the great development of the upper jaw, which forms a huge, tapering, sword-like weapon, covered along its under-surface with numerous small teeth. They attack, apparently without provocation, whales and other large cetaceans, which they invariably succeed in killing by repeated thrusts of the sword. It appears that occasionally sword-fishes make a mistake, and, after the fashion of Don Quixote, tilt at windmills, in the shape of large vessels, under the impression that they are whales. But this most grave error of judgment brings with it a heavy penalty, in that, having no power to make effective backward movements, the sword remains fixed, and is eventually broken off in the struggle for freedom. Frank Buckland reminds us that in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, is a section of the bow of a whaler impaled by one of these swords. That portion of the sword which remains is 1 foot long and 5 inches in circumference. "At one single blow," he writes, "the fish had plunged his sword through, and completely transfixed 13½ inches of solid timber. The sword had of course broken off and prevented a dangerous leak in the ship." In the British Museum is a second specimen of a ship's side in which the sword of a sword-fish is fixed.
