. The history of birds : their varieties and oddities, comprising graphic descriptions of nearly all known species of birds, with fishes and insects, the world over, and illustrating their varied habits, modes of life, and distinguishing peculiarities by means of delightful anecdotes and spirited engravings . equently grow tothe length of twenty feetor upwards, and are verypowerful fish. When his majestys shipLeopard, after her returnfrom the coast of Guineaand the West Indies, wasordered, in 1725, to be cleaned and refitted for the Channel service,in stripping off her sheathing the shipwright
. The history of birds : their varieties and oddities, comprising graphic descriptions of nearly all known species of birds, with fishes and insects, the world over, and illustrating their varied habits, modes of life, and distinguishing peculiarities by means of delightful anecdotes and spirited engravings . equently grow tothe length of twenty feetor upwards, and are verypowerful fish. When his majestys shipLeopard, after her returnfrom the coast of Guineaand the West Indies, wasordered, in 1725, to be cleaned and refitted for the Channel service,in stripping off her sheathing the shipwrights found in her bottom,pointing in a direction from the stern towards the head, part of theBword or snout of one of these fishes. On the outside, this wasrough, not unlike seal-skin, and the end, where it was broken off,appeared like a coarse kind of ivory. The fish, from the directionin which the sword lay, is supposed to have followed the ship whenunder sail. The weapon had penetrated through^ the sheathingwhich was an inch thick ; and passed through three inches of plank,and beyond that, four inches and a half into the timber. The forcerequisite to effect this must have been excessively great, especially at-iio shock was felt by the persons on board. The workmen declared THE EUROPEAN SWORD-FISH. 417. BWORD OF SWORD-nSH, PIERCrSQ TIMBES. that it would be impossible, with a hammer of a quarter of c hundred weight, to drive an iron pin of the same form and size into that wood, and to the same depth, by less than eight or nine strokes, whilst this had been effected b/ only one. And about sixteenyears ago, a letterwas written to SirJoseph Banks, aspiesident of theRoyal Society, fromthe captain of anEast Indiaman, andwas accompanied byan account of an-other instance of the amazing strength which this fish occasionallyexerts. The bottom of this ship had been pierced through in such amanner, that the sword was completely imbedded, or driven throughits whole length, and the fish kille
Size: 1752px × 1426px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectzoology
