219 



scales alone ruled that out, and the identity of the fish remained 

 a mystery. 



Soon after returning to Rhodesia, in some periodical Cartwright 

 saw for the first time a picture of a Coelacanth, and was at once 

 struck by its resemblance to the fish he had seen. Shortly after- 

 wards he visited the Centenary Exhibition in Bulawayo, and to 

 his satisfaction found a full-size model of a Coelacanth (from the 

 East London Museum) on view there. Its close resemblance to 

 the fish that had startled him was even more striking, and by con- 

 triving to put himself into the same relative position as he had 

 been to his fish, as far as he could judge this appeared to confirm 

 in every respect that the fish he had seen had indeed been a real 

 live Coelacanth. What did I think ? Well, it was clear that if the 

 Comores was the home of the Coelacanth, Malindi was much 

 nearer and much more easily accessible in every way than East 

 London, which one Coelacanth at least had actually reached. 

 Bazaruto fell in between these places, and Cartwright's experience 

 at least lent colour to the Bazaruto idea. Furthermore, from my 

 wide knowledge of the fishes of the western Indian Ocean I could 

 think of no species that fitted Cartwright's description as well as a 

 Coelacanth. Not one.* 



Meanwhile, arising from the refusal of the French to permit any 

 foreigner to work in their waters, this alternative of an Inter- 

 national Coelacanth expedition had been taken up by the Scientific 

 Council for Africa, one of whose functions is to co-ordinate 

 scientific effort in Africa south of the Sahara. This body appointed 

 a Committee consisting of Dr. Millot (France), Dr. Worthington 

 (British), and myself to consider the matter. The meeting was 

 arranged to be held in Nairobi during the last week of October 



1953- 



Early in September 1953 my wife and I and a scientist friend, 

 H. J. Koch, set off for Mozambique. Our work about Bazaruto 

 and the other islands, and at Ponte de Barra Falsa, proved 

 extremely interesting and rich in results, as far as fishes generally 

 were concerned, but not of Coelacanths. That was naturally only 



* It may be noted that it has been pointed out that it was unlikely that the 

 fish that Cartwright saw was a Coelacanth, because the French have reported 

 that the first live Coelacanth to be caught showed such fear of light. (But see 

 p. 242.) 



