i85 



found fish remains, a few scales and the eyeballs of a fish. Fishes' 

 eyes vary in size, but, taking an average, those were from a fish 

 of about 15 lb. in weight. A 15-lb. fish is quite a size. This con- 

 firmed my views about the way a Coelacanth fed. Clearly he 

 pounces and grabs. His powerful jaw muscles would enable him to 

 hold the struggling prey, and it seems likely that the toothed gills 

 would come into play and rasp that struggling fish's flesh and life 

 away. Then it could be pulped and mashed and broken up, and 

 swallowed just as a big Rock Cod does it. Degenerate ! Deep-sea 

 refuge to escape competition ! Not this fish. 



To my great sorrow, this was a male. I had, of course, hoped for 

 a female with young. We are still waiting for that.* There were 

 many other points observed and noted, but they are rather tech- 

 nical. 



Scientific publications normally take some time to prepare and 

 appear. Even in 1939 it took a month before my first account of 

 the Coelacanth appeared in Nature, and another four weeks before 

 I saw a copy. In 1953, on the 2nd January, two days after our 

 return, my wife and I set to and worked all that week-end, 

 furiously, and a seven-page manuscript and photographs were 

 sent by air on the 6th January 1953. This appeared in the issue 

 of Nature of the i6th January, and a copy was on my desk in 

 Grahamstown on the 19th, by which time it was in the hands of 

 scientists all over the world as well. Modern times ! 



Several letters came from Hunt giving further news. Some days 

 after we had left the Comores, the ceremony of presentation of 

 the 50,000 francs took place. I have no record of events, only that 

 bare statement. Hunt wrote to say that some photographs had 

 been taken and he hoped to send prints later, but the cyclone 

 finished that. This presentation payment of so vast a sum must 

 have had a profound effect, the kind of effect we had hoped for, 

 and we waited and waited, hoping to hear of more and other 

 Coelacanths. 



After these events. Hunt returned to Africa, and soon after set 

 out again on his Comoran round. By a strange trick of fate, when 

 he returned to Pamanzi, only two weeks after we had left, a cyclone 

 caught him there, and after what he describes tersely as 'a terri- 

 fying experience', he and his crew escaped with their lives ; but the 



* See p. 237, Appendix C. 



