FISHES 131 



fish quickly secures itself to a shark, sea perch or turtle, 

 when both are easily hauled aboard. Shark-suckers are 

 cosmopolitan, and although quite good swimmers prefer 

 to attach themselves to pelagic fish, turtles and even 

 vessels. 



When Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba he made 

 a note of the fact that the Remora was employed by the 

 native fishermen and the following account is found in his 

 " Life " by his son Ferdinand : " In one of the channels they 

 espied a canoe of Indian fishermen, who very quietly 

 without the least concern watched the boat which was 

 making towards them, and being come near made a sign 

 to them in it to attend until they had done fishing. Their 

 manner of fishing was so strange and new to our men that 

 they were willing to comply with them. It was thus : 

 they had tied some small fishes they called Reverso by the 

 tail which rubbed themselves against other fish and with 

 a certain roughness they have from the head to the middle 

 of the back they stick themselves to the next fish they 

 eat ; and so when the Indians perceive it, drawing their 

 line, they land them both in together. And it was a 

 tortoise our men saw so taken by these fishermen, that 

 fish clinging about the neck of it where they generally 

 fasten, being by that means safe from the other fish biting 

 them. And you see them fastened upon vast sharks." 



The anal fin, like all other fins, exhibits variations in 

 size and shape. When short it may act as a balancing 

 organ, or when long as an organ of progression. As in 

 the case of the dorsal fin, the first two rays may be spinous 

 and separated from the soft rays. 



The tail or caudal fin is the most powerful and active 



