The sword-fish is reported to have violent contests with the whale, of which the following, quoted from a reliable work, is a striking example:

13. "One morning, as stated by the captain of an English vessel, during a calm, when near the Western Isles of Scotland, all hands were called up at three in the morning to witness a battle between several fish called thrashers, or fox-sharks, and some sword-fish on the one side, and an enormous whale on the other. It was in the middle of summer, and the weather being clear, and the fish close to the vessel, we had a fine opportunity of witnessing the contest.

14. "As soon as the whale's back appeared above the surface, the thrashers, springing several yards into the air, descended with great violence upon the object of their rancor,* and inflicted upon him the most severe slaps with their tails, the sounds of which resembled the reports of muskets fired at a distance. The sword-fish, in their turn, attacked the distressed whale, stabbing from beneath, so that the water to a great distance around was dyed with blood. In this manner they continued tormenting and wounding him for many hours, until we lost sight of him; and I have no doubt that in the end they completed his destruction."

15. It is probably by mistaking a vessel for one of these great monsters of the deep that the sword-fish has been known to try his strength against a gallant ship. Those on board have sometimes, from the violence of the shock, found it difficult to believe that they had not struck some hidden rock, such being the weight and power of the fish; and specimens of ships' timbers penetrated by the sword of the fish, which is sometimes broken off and left in the wood, are not uncommon. The poet Oppian describes this fish as attacking even rocks themselves:

"Struck by the blade, the sounding stone gives way,
And shatter'd rocks their secret veins display."

16. As the weapon of the sword-fish is very destructive to nets, the harpoon has always been a favorite method for capturing large specimens. Oppian further relates that the sailors of the Tyrrhine Sea constructed, with this view, certain light skiffs, built to resemble the sword-fish, which the latter, mistaking for so many new acquaintances of their own species, approach in foolish confidence, and thus are easily destroyed by the harpooners. We give the poet's narration, without, however, vouching for its truth.

17.

"To fishy forms th' artistic builders lend

Mimetics fins, and wooden sword protend. 6
With secret joy each xiphias views his friends,
And kindly instincts aid man's treacherous ends.
Anon the craf y boatmen, closing round,
The trident hurl, and deal the deadly wound.
The goaded fish, experience bought too late,
Escapes, but oft still battles hard with fate;
Unvanquish'd, summons to his instant aid
The oft-tried prowess9 of his trusty blade;

Selects some boat, and runs his powerful sword
Full many an inch within the fatal board:
There holds no more, the doughty 10 weapon yields,
And crimsons with his blood the briny fields."
6 PRO-TEND', stretch forth.

7 TRI-DENT, a spear with three prongs. 8 GOAD-ED, pricked with the goad or spear. [fish. 9 PROW'-ESS, bravery; skillful valor.

1 I'-RIS, a plant of that name. See p. 187.
2 AR-TIF-I-CER, a skillful workman.
3 XIPH'-I-AS, the Latin name of the sword-
4 RAN'-COR, inveterate enmity.
5 MI-MET'-1€, imitative.

10 DOUGH'-TY (dow'-ty), brave; illustrious.

LESSON V.-THE SPINE-RAYED FISHES CONTINUED.

1. Common Sword-fish, Xiphias gladius. 2. Indian Sword-fish, Histiophorus Indicus. 3. Common Tunny, Thynnis vulgaris. 4. Dolphin of the ancients, Coryphaena hippuris. 5. Scabbard-fish, Lepidopus argyreus. 6. Wolf-fish (a fighting character, belonging to the family of the Gobies), Anarrhichus lupus. 7. Fishing Frog, Lophius piscatorius.

1. THE several species of the Pilot-fish, of which so many curious stories have been told, also belong to the Mackerel family. The ancient naturalists asserted that the common pilot-fish, which is a pretty little fish about a foot in length, joins company with the tempest-toss'd bark of the anxious mariner, indicates to him his nearest course to land, and leaves him as soon as it has fulfilled this kind office.

2. Others, with much reason, deny this assertion, and allege that the pilot, like the shark, follows vessels for the purpose of obtaining a share of the garbagel which may be thrown

overboard. Certain, however, it is, that their perseverance in this respect is very singular, as is narrated in the case of an English vessel which was accompanied by two pilot-fish during its entire voyage of eighty days from Alexandria, in the Mediterranean, to Plymouth.

3. It is a current opinion among sailors that this fish acts a pilot's part to the shark, and accompanies and befriends it as opportunity offers; and certainly there is a great amount of evidence which goes to show that there is something very much like a confiding familiarity between these two companions of the weary mariner. Numerous well-authenticated cases like that which we quote from Cuvier, respecting the habits of this fish, might be given.

4. With the ancients, however, as described by their poets, this little fish was the faithful companion of the whale instead of the shark; and Oppian thus alludes to the services which these pigmy pilots render to their unwieldy associates:

"Bold in the front the little pilot glides,

Averts each danger, every motion guides;
With grateful joy the willing whales attend,
Observe the leader, and revere the friend.
Where'er the little guardian leads the way,
The bulky tyrants doubt not to obey,
Implicit trust repose in him alone,

And hear and see with senses not their own."

When, and on what grounds, the misunderstanding of the pilot with his "fat friend" took place, history fails to inform us; but that he is now the ally of the dreaded shark, whom he escorts in safety through every sea, is matter of general notoriety and almost daily observation. The following is the extract from Cuvier:

5. "Captain Richards, of the Royal Navy, during his station in the Mediterranean, saw on a fine-day a blue shark, which followed the ship. After a time a shark-hook, baited with pork, was flung out. The shark, attended by four pilot-fish, repeatedly approached the bait; and every time he did so, one of the pilots, which preceded him, was distinctly seen from the taffrail of the ship to run his snout against the side of the shark's head to turn it away.

ter.

6. "After this had continued for a time, the shark swam off in the wake3 of the vessel, his dorsal fin being long distinctly visible above the waWhen he had gone, however, a considerable distance, he suddenly turned round, darted toward the vessel, and before the pilot-fish could overtake him and interpose, snapped at the bait, and was taken. In hoisting him on board, one of the pilot-fish was observed to cling to his side until he was half above water, when it fell off. All the pilots then swam about for a while, as if in search of their friend, with every apparent mark of anxiety, and then darted suddenly into the depths of the sea."

7. The dory, or John Dory, a fish of grotesque figure and uncommon colors, from twelve to eighteen inches in length, also belongs to the Mackerel family, although differing much in form from its kindred. In many towns on the Mediterranean it is called "St. Peter's fish," it being alleged that it was from the mouth of a fish of this species that the apostle obtained the coin to pay the tribute-money, and that the imprint of his two

fingers marks the species to the present day.

8. The fish generally known as the "dolphin of the sailors," and celebrated by the poets for its resplendent hues, "changing as it dies," also belongs to the famous Mackerel family. It is an active, voracious animal, greedily pursuing the flying-fish, which constitute its favorite food. When in eager pursuit of its prey, the undulations of its large dorsal fin reflect its varied markings of silvery blue and golden yellow with unwonted brilliancy. A scene at sea, in which a shoal of these fish are observed sporting in their native element, and a whale making his appearance near by, is thus beautifully described by the poet Montgomery:

- 9.

"Next on the surge,

A shoal of dolphins, tumbling in wild glee,
Glowed with such orient tints, they might have been
The rainbow's offspring, when it met the ocean.
While yet in ecstasy I hung o'er these,
With every motion pouring out fresh beauties,.
As though the conscious colors came and went
At pleasure, glorying in their subtle changes-
Enormous o'er the flood, Leviathan
Looked forth, and from his roaring nostrils sent
Two fountains to the sky, then plunged amain
In headlong pastime through the closing gulf."

10. Of the family of the ribbon-shaped fish, which contains about thirty known species, we have given, in the engraving at the head of this lesson, only one specimen, the scabbard

fish. Concerning this family we quote from an eminent English naturalist, Mr. Swainson, the following remarks:

11. "This family contains the most singular and extraordinary fishes in creation. The form of the body, when compared to fishes better known, is much like that of an eel, the length being in the same proportion to the breadth; but then it is generally so much compressed that these creatures have acquired the popular name of ribbon-fish, lath, or deal-fish. The body, indeed, is often not thicker, except in its middle, than a sword; and as it is of the richest silver in brightness, and of great length, the undulating motion of these fishes in the sea must be resplendent and beautiful beyond measure. But these wonders of the mighty deep are almost hidden from the eye of man. These meteoric fishes appear to live in the greatest depths; and it is only at long intervals, and after a succession of tempests, that a solitary individual is cast upon the shore with its delicate body torn and mutilated on the rocks.

12. Of the family of the Mullets, which differ from the Surmullets already described, and of the family of the Blennies or Gobies, which are mostly small fish, we have many species on our coasts. Two of the blennies are pictured on page 223. Nature has endowed the mullets with a power which often aids their escape from the nets of the fisherman, and which is thus alluded to by the poet Oppian :

"The mullet, when encircling seines5 inclose,

The fatal threads and treacherous bosom knows.
Instant he rallies all his vigorous powers,
And faithful aid of every name implores;

O'er battlement of cork up-darting flies,

And finds from air th' escape which sea denies."

When one takes the leap, the others, like sheep, follow instantly in succession.

13. The most grotesque-looking fishes of all that belong to the spine-rayed division are those which are embraced in the family of the Lophida. Here is found the famous fishing-frog, or angler, whose boldness and voracity, and peculiar modes of taking its prey, to say nothing of its uncouth form, have rendered it perhaps more celebrated than any other fish of equal size.

14. The angler is said to fish both with the net and with the line, luring its victims to destruction by means of the long thread-like streamers or feelers which issue from the top of its enormous head, and capturing them in the great sacs connected with its mouth and gills. The following is said to be the mode of procedure. The angler, lying close to the bottom, stirs up the sand or mud by means of its ventral and pectoral fins; hidden by the obscurity thus produced, it eleyates its feelers, moves them in various directions by way of attracting as a bait, and then by a rapid movement seizes the fish which approach to examine them.