Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-08-17

1dldldpiS.
| SworGtishing is wonderfully eNhilarat-
! inc sport, like hunting bear-eNcellent
and healthy just so long as the bar
don't hunt you" Forth from the wide
harbor of gray Old Stonington, on the
/ sound, twice and thrice a week speed
little flock of smaclls and sailboats,
bending eastward, making for the
swordtish grounds in the ocean far
! beyond Block island, writes New
| London correspondent OF the New
| York Sun. From the walled-in little
basin within the granite break
water at New sherman village, OIL the
| lonely village, sails as often another
| fleet OF doughty and eager sWordhSher-
men SwordtiSh are very plentiful, and
the world has lately learned to prize
their flesh. There is money III the
chase OF that solitary prOwier OF the
sea, who wears his saber in hiS snout.
| 1t is fifteen OF twenty miles southeast
of Block island, on the hither edge Of
the gulf stream, that the fishermen go
to do battle with the sWordtiSh. 1t is
not difficult to find him. He is always
coasting there unWeariedly, back and
forth in the tepid waters of the great
stream, hunting all sorts of fish in
shoals, and even waterfowl, at times,
all OF which he rips to pieces with his
sword exactly as a Woodsman deals
slanting blows with his ak and
trooper with his Saber. All living
things that swim are griSt to his mill.
He is afraid of uOne. He carries his
black cOlorS alOft with the bOldnesS Of
any pirate-his black tin, which Sits
| the surface of the ocean as he glideS
along as the coulter of a pillow cuts the
greenSWard.
But it is by no means a life alto
gether of ease and inactivity, cruis-
ing for sWordfish. The geart game
fish are plentiful, indeed, and when the
sport is Oh there is stress of work and
thrilling adventure, than which there
is none more intense, more trying,
more intrepid, not even that Of hunting
the great right whale OF sending pilots
in a storm to incoming liners. These
rough aud ready, bare-armed, resOlute,
sun-tanned, marine redmen cruise not
for sport in the first place, but for Spoils
and ready lucre, and every palpitating,
armed leviathan they heave aboard
their vessel means to them so many
pounds Of sWOrdtish cut up into so
many steaks at s to 10 cents a pound.
The dollar mark is tagged to every
iSh.
Almost every one knows how sword
| fish are taken, and that it is arduOuS
and perilsome, but desperately fas-
chatting work to take them. Almost
every one knows that far out on the
bowsprit Iof every sword fisherman
there is a little open iron-banded
pulpit" where tie harpOoner, har-
poon in hand, as his craft rides up to
the side of his fearless game, Which
| scorns to fee or turn aside from any
foe that assails him; that the harpoon
| is hurled into his side OF that then the
monster, furious with pain and rage,
bounds away, with a floating keg at
tached to the iron dart by fathOmS Of
rope, or plungeS into the nOrthernmOSt
course Of the ocean. The vessel sails
after him, like a tireleSs hound on the
| trail of a fox, and the marine hunters
have only to keep sight of him until he
| has exhausted himself with his mad
rushes through the seas. When the
| time comes, h0Wever-it may be in am
hour. or it may be after twice that
time-fOr the plucky spearmen to deal
the finishing stroke to the doughty
warrior, then, if ever, hunter and
game meet on fairly even terms in a
valiant tug-o'-war.
The harpOOner quits the vessel in a
yaWl and with axe, OF club, or spear
pulls his frail craft over the rough
waves to the side Of the dying fish.
1t may be the mOribund giant is
GREATNESS and really exhausted, and,
if so, the harpooner has only to draw
up where he has measured his bulky
length upon the surface of the ocean,
plunge his sharp spear into his heart
or brain, or deal a crushing blow upon
his head. But if the big fellow is only
feinting, there is likely to be trouble.
Sulkily and YEARLY, but mOtiOnleSS, he
notes the harpooner's advance and
when the latter has driven his boat to
a point not half a dozen rods away,
du Ol ii Sulucu Tic great ISL olouoCo
himself, shakes the lethargy out of his
frame and the brine out of his glim-
mering eyes, measures the place Of his
foe for an instant, then rushes upon
him like a whirlwind. Rarely ever
does he miss his drive, and the daunt-
less warrior, with swift and sinewy
skill and nervous sweep of paddles, is
imDOtent to evade it. The fish cleayes
the waves with the speed and fury of
a war horse, a sudden dip beneath the
waves, 10, he has gone; but the next
instant the oarsman. leaping into the
stern Of his craft, hears a great rush
of water. as of a submarine volcano be-
meath him, and with the sound Of rip
ping boat timbers,, that part with the
fragility Of paper, a long, slender,
broWn-black, hairy rapier is driven
through the cookie shell from side to
side as if the lance of a galloping
Cossack had cleft it. Lucky it is, in
deed. for the boatman that he, too, may
not be in line with the irresistible
STR light thrust, for if he is SO the
sharp slender bone saber will split
him, also, as swiftly and easily as
cook skeWers a chicken. Instances are
not wanting in which a boatman has
had both his legs speared through by
the sword of a furious swordfish and
himself firmly impaled to the sides of
his yaw1. One Block islander was
cleft in that -yav only aSt summer off