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Proceed we now to treat of the Inhabitants of the Watry Element, which tho' we can as yet do but very imperfectly; yet we are willing to oblige the Curious with the best Account that is in our Power to present them withal. The Fish in the salt, and fresh Waters of Carolina, are, Whales, several sorts. Thrashers. Divel-Fish. Sword-Fish. Crampois. Bottle-Noses. Porpoises. Sharks, two sorts.
"A sword-fish!" cried Ben. The rostrum of one of these singular creatures was the sharp bone protruding above the plank. "You're right, Snowy, it be a sword-fish, and nothing else." "Only de snout o' one," jocularly rejoined the negro. "De karkiss ob de anymal an't dar any more. Dat was de black body I seed under de raff; but he an't dar now.
This sword-fish ran against the vessel with such force that it drove its sword quite through the thick planks, and when the ship arrived in harbour, long afterwards, the sword was found still sticking in it! Sharks did not often appear, but we took care never again to bathe in deep water without leaving one of our number in the boat to give us warning, if he should see a shark approaching.
Anyhow, the syndicate led off with their main force first; for while the two killers hung on the cachalot's flanks, diverting his attention, the sword-fish, a giant some sixteen feet long, launched himself at the most vulnerable part of the whale, for all the world like a Whitehead torpedo.
In strange inconsistence with its possession of so formidable an armature, the general disposition of the sword-fish is represented to be gentle and inoffensive; and although the fact of its assaults upon the whale has been incontestably established, yet the motive for such conflicts, and the causes of its enmity, are beyond conjecture.
The stories of the land pioneers open up a still richer field of natural science study for the common schools. Among animals are the beaver, otter, squirrel, coon, bear, fox, wildcat, deer, buffalo, domestic animals, wild turkeys, ducks, pigeons, eagle, hawk, wild bees, cat-fish, sword-fish, turtle, alligator, and many more.
There was an old sword-fish, that seemed to be a kind of special constable, who kept going round and round, pricking the dolphins whenever he got a chance and frightening the little fishes almost out of their senses; as often as he made his appearance, with that long sword of his sticking out, such a scampering as there would be! and how the wee fishes would try to hide behind the dolphins, and how the dolphins would slap them with their fins, and go rolling in among the steady fishes, as if they were the most quiet, well-disposed, respectable fishes that ever were.
And they did make way; the Catamaran, in spite of the terrible "stab" she had received, scudding through the water, as if to show that the assault of the sword-fish had in no way disabled her. Motion has always a soothing effect upon anyone suffering from despondent spirits; more especially when the movement is being made in the right direction.
Nailed against the boat were the dried skins of wild animals, and scattered about lay the flotsam and jetsam of many years' gathering, bamboo crates, casks, hatches, blocks, oars, boxes, part of a whale's vertebrae, and the blades of sword-fish. Drawn up on the beach of a little cove before the house lay a canoe.
Among others, he related an anecdote of a ship in which he had sailed having been pierced by the beak of a sword-fish. At the time the incident occurred there was no one on board who had any suspicion of its nature. The crew were below at their dinner; when one of the sailors who chanced to be on deck heard a loud splashing in the water.
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