WHERE CURRENTS RIP 55 



hangers-on, at any rate they must benefit by the 

 crumbs that fall from the sea- wolves' table. 



The sharks had even more literal hangers-on, in 

 the persons of the shark suckers. The big fish can 

 seldom be lonely, for there is scarcely a shark to 

 be found without at least one of these pseudo-para- 

 sitic attendants, known as Remora or Echeneis. 

 Clinging with the great sucker which has, in some 

 way, evolved from the dorsal fin, these strange 

 creatures can slip at will over the whole of the 

 shark's body. When their host is hooked, they cling 

 until the very moment when he is drawn into the air. 

 Then, realizing that the worst has definitely hap- 

 pened, with an admirable expediency they desert, 

 not the sinking, but the rising ship, and hurry away 

 to find some less unlucky means of transport, 

 whether shark, or, it may be, some other great fish 

 or a turtle. We took two Reinora with hook and 

 line, which is rather unusual. 



Late in the afternoon of our first day in the 

 rip when we had stopped in order to take tempera- 

 tures, I was looking down from the bridge when 

 I suddenly saw a sea snake swimming in small 

 circles and drifting slowly along. It recalled the 

 last meeting I had with these real sea serpents 

 — when I balanced in the bow of a sampan in the 

 swift running tide of Penang. A Chinaman 

 steadied the boat for me with his long sweeps, 

 while I dipped up various desirable creatures as 

 they swept past on the current. As I had no 

 bottle or bag of sufficient size I carefully avoided 

 the sea snakes which were swimming past, literally 



