IS8 



debate that ensued. The instructions on the leaflet were clear: 

 *Do not cut it or clean it or scale it, but take it at once to some 

 responsible person' ; and who more so than Hunt, whose schooner, 

 by a miracle, was known, as natives do know such things, to be 

 anchored at that moment at Mutsamudu on the other side of the 

 island, about twenty-five miles away. But what a twenty-five 

 miles, the path mostly through deep, densely bushed valleys and 

 over high mountains. 



It still remains in my mind as one of the most astonishing 

 things of this whole story that anything could stir people like the 

 Comoroans to the stage of even considering carrying that 90-lb. 

 fish that terrific distance over such hard country in that blazing, 

 tropical heat. That they actually came to do it shows the tremen- 

 dous power of money. It was only a fabulous sum like 50,000 

 francs that could have got them to do it, but it would have been 

 an achievement in even a temperate country, in any country. They 

 did it. My blood ran cold when I heard the story, the uncleaned 

 fish first in the close tropical night, and then that whole long day 

 in such torrid heat. It is a miracle that it had not liquified in putre- 

 faction long before it reached Hunt. It may be the preservative 

 nature of its oil that saved it. 



According to Hunt, when those men reached Mutsamudu they 

 came straight to him, and he recognised the fish at once as a 

 Coelacanth. It was already putrefying and he had no formalin ; so 

 he went posthaste to the office of the local doctor, but found he 

 was away. Remembering Mrs. Smith's instructions. Hunt told 

 his crew to cut it for salting, in a hurry, and unfortunately while 

 he was getting the salt they cut it as they were accustomed to do 

 in salting such fish, hacking it open along the back, through the 

 body and head like a kipper. Next time you see a kipper, look at 

 it. That is how my precious Malania was cut, but of course by 

 Hunt's instructions the insides were left intact, most of them. 



Hunt realised the full importance of this find, and wisely 

 questioned the natives. Was this fish known to them? Oh yes, 

 they knew it well, they were rare but caught regularly. They 

 called them ^Komhessa\ and they were not much valued as food 

 when fresh, but were good salted. When cooked fresh the flesh 

 became soggy and jelly-like, and was not very good to eat ; but 

 they were eaten. They were nearly always caught with the Oil- 



