THE SWORD-FISH 243

than any other fishes, and are important contributors
to the food supply of man. They abound in all the
temperate and tropical seas except, curiously enough,
on the American side of the South Atlantic, where
no species of Scomber has yet been found. They
may be looked upon as the hawks of the sea, preying
ceaselessly upon other fishes, chasing them for
enormous distances at high speeds. The biggest of
the group is, perhaps, the Mediterranean tunny,
which has been found even as far afield as the coasts
of Tasmania, and which frequently reaches ten feet
in length. The albacore belongs to this group, as
also do the John Dory, the sucking-fishes, and the
Coryphene—the ‘dolphins’ that hunt the flying-fish,
and turn to such beautiful colours in their death-
throes. The clumsy opah, or king-fish, also belongs
to this group.

The horse-mackerels belong to another group—the
Carangide—which includes the yellow-tails and the
pilot-fish that accompany the sharks, and which the
sharks do not eat because they are not quick enough
to catch them. Another and an even more numer-
ous group are the sword-fishes, some of which are
fifteen feet long. The sword-fish is the particular foe
of the whale, and is supposed to attack boats and
ships owing to his mistaking them for cetaceans.
In the Dreadnought trial in 1864—an action brought
against underwriters for damage said to have been
caused by a sword-fish—many instances of their
attacks were given in evidence by Sir Richard Owen
and Frank Buckland. It appeared that a sword-fish
had been caught by the crew and had broken away

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