159 



fish in the deeper water and on flesh bait, using Squid or any kind 

 of fish. They fought hard on a Hne, were difficult to kill, and some 

 were lost after being hooked and pulled up. Hunt found out 

 afterwards that a good many people there knew these curiously 

 rough scales, for they were used to roughen bicycle tubes in mend- 

 ing punctures. These fish were usually caught in cyclone time; 

 that is, towards the end of our year. Most of them were big fish, 

 more than 30 kilograms, some very big, but there was another 

 and smaller kind occasionally seen. Some of this might be doubt- 

 ful, but Hunt was satisfied that they really knew the Coelacanth, 

 and that though it was rare, it turned up regularly. When he told 

 me all this, I was worried by the name 'Kombessa\ because in 

 East Africa the rather rare large Kingfishes (Caranx) are called 

 'Kambesi*, and to the undiscerning eye they might well appear 

 not so very unlike the Coelacanth. They have the same ferocious 

 appearance and a large, powerful mouth. 



Hunt had to act, and he did so with speed. It was not clear if a 

 radio message was sent or could be sent from Anjouan to Dzaoudzi, 

 but Hunt set out in his schooner and arrived at Pamanzi on the 

 following day, the 22nd December 1952. He at once informed the 

 Governor of his find, the local doctor willingly gave all the forma- 

 lin available, and Hunt himself injected this into all the parts of 

 the fish, and from what I saw he did it well. Hunt had a metal- 

 lined box made to hold the animal. He sent me the cable mentioned 

 before, expecting me to be at Grahamstown, but realised from 

 my reply that I must still be on the Dunnottar at Durban. 



The French can scarcely be blamed if they were at first some- 

 what sceptical of the great importance Hunt attached to this fish ; 

 but his intense excitement had its effect, and a cable about it was 

 sent to the Scientific Institute of Madagascar at Tananarive. Not 

 only was this cable so mutilated in transmission by the native 

 operators as to be undeciperable there, but the official to whom it 

 was addressed was absent at that time. Christmas time ! (See 

 p. 88.) 



If I had endured many difficulties and uncertainties, those at 

 Dzaoudzi had had their own. Hunt was shrewd enough to realise 

 that the importance he attached to the find was having an effect 

 on the French authorities, and he eventually had to face the 

 situation that, despite their initial scepticism, he might well have 



