fish are here stated to have been close to the vessel, it is difficult to see how a mistake could have arisen. Various professors, however, deny the truth, and even the possibility of these things; but the reckless negations of mere scientists should always be received with extreme caution, when opposed to the direct personal evidence of British seamen, as accustomed to scan as to sail the ocean, and in the constant, daily habit of keeping their weather-eye open. As before remarked, the thresher is a species of shark, nor can he be said to be a very large one, since without the tail he would only be some six or seven feet long, and that part of him, efficient though it is, is so thin and supple that it adds but little to his bulk. Certainly one would not expect such a creature to make whales his habitual prey: nor is this the case, though common observation makes it certain that he does very often attack them. Usually, however, he feeds upon mackerels, herrings, and other fish that swim in shoals. These, if scattered, he drives together by threshing the water with his tail, going round and about them as does a sheep-dog with its flock, though with a purpose much less humane. Then, when the sea is thick with a wedged and struggling mass, he kills quantities at a time by a rain of flail-like blows. The thresher—or fox-shark, as it is also called—and the sword-fish make, together, a strange pair of creatures, the one being extraordinarily elongated at the tail, and the other at the nose. It is curious to find these two great fishes, developed thus in opposite directions, if not upon opposite principles, combining against a common object of attack, each helping the other with a weapon very different from its own. Of the two, that of the sword-fish is certainly the more deadly when used against a creature of any size, and since the thresher itself is doubtless good eating, one almost wonders that it does not occur to its powerful ally to kill it, rather than the whale. This it could probably do with impunity, for one thrust would be sufficient, and by striking from beneath, as it does with the whale, it would stand in no danger of the thresher’s blows. Moreover, it is one of the swiftest swimmers of ocean, as might be gathered both from its powerful tail and the general lines of its body, which is elongated, even if we do not take the lance-like snout or upper jaw into consideration. The sword-fish, however, seems to possess a natural instinct for combination, since, on another occasion, we have seen it leagued with two killers or grampuses, in an unsuccessful attack on a sperm-whale. Possibly, therefore, it makes the pursuit of these huge creatures—more particularly of the whalebone whales, which are less dangerous—a speciality, being, no doubt, induced to it by the prospect of a rich and enduring banquet, and possibly also by the mere love of sport.