MACKERELS. 



123 



conclusive is recorded in Griffith's Cuvier, fur- 

 nished by Colonel Hamilton Smith, and confirmed 

 by his own observations. " Captain Richards, 

 R.N., during his last station in the Mediterra- 

 nean, saw on a fine day a Blue Shark, which 

 followed the ship, attracted perhaps by a corpse 

 which had been committed to the waves. After 

 some time a shark-hook, baited with pork, was 

 flung out. The Shark, attended by four Pilot- 

 fish, repeatedly approached the bait ; and every 

 time that he did so, one of the Pilots preceding 

 him was distinctly seen from the taffrail of the 

 ship to run his snout against the side of the 

 Shark's head to turn it away. After some farther 

 play, the fish swam off in the wake of the vessel, 

 his dorsal fin being long distinctly visible above 

 the water. When he had gone, however, a con- 

 siderable distance, he suddenly turned round, 

 darted after the vessel, and before the Pilot-fish 

 could overtake him and interpose, snapped at the 

 bait and was taken. In hoisting him up, one of 

 the Pilots was observed to cling to his side until 

 he was half above water, when it fell off. All 

 the Pilot-fishes then swam about a while, as if 

 in search of their friend, with every apparent 

 mark of anxiety and distress, and afterwards 

 darted suddenly down into the depths of the sea. 

 Colonel H. Smith has himself witnessed, with in- 

 tense curiosity, an event in all respects precisely 

 similar."* 



Not a few instances are on record of Pilot- 

 fishes having accompanied vessels all the way 

 from the Mediterranean, and even from its re- 

 motest parts, until they dropped anchor in a 



* Animal Kingdom, vol. x. p. 636. 



