TUNNIES AND THEIR RELATIONS 



them down in turn, they are often to be seen from the 

 deck of a ship going twelve or fifteen knots an hour 

 and travelling as fast as the vessel when they are 

 hunting on the surface of the water. 



The four-spotted little tunny stands out among 

 them. Its. relatively small size, its grace, the originality 

 of its colouring, quickly attract attention. It lives in 

 most warm seas, and is caught by fishermen in fine 

 weather in the southern waters of the Mediterranean. 

 In Tunisia, Tripoli and Egypt it is often seen in 

 baskets at the fish-markets, and can be recognised by 

 its pearly, shiny belly, its hardly darker sides, and 

 bluish-grey back, marked with black stripes, some 

 wavy and interlaced, others straight, the smallest short 

 and spot-like. These lines, all mixed up together, 

 look like a mysterious system of writing, consisting, 

 so the story goes, of sentences written in an unknown 

 tongue which, according to the Moslem fishermen, 

 is that of Allah. Its meaning is hidden from ordinary 

 men and understood only by the greatest saints. 



These fish, when captured and examined closely 

 upon the boat's deck, or later, on the stalls in the 

 market, are as surprising as the porpoises and dolphins. 

 Judging by their speed, we should expect to find them 

 finely shaped. Instead, they are fat, large-bellied, 

 very different indeed from our anticipations. We 

 cannot understand it. We look still more closely to 

 trv and find out the reason for such a contrast between 

 expectation and reality. A detailed study, however, 

 soon makes clear the actual facts of the case, and we 

 cease to be astonished. 



The bodies of the four-spotted little tunny and of 

 the larger species of tunny which are even thicker 

 and fatter, are clearly designed for rapid progress 

 through the water. Their spindle-shaped form is 

 constructed along lines best calculated to offer the 

 least resistance. The skin, covered with tiny scales, 

 presents surfaces which are curved and smooth ; friction 

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