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'We, for our part, had to ensure a prison containing a sufficient 

 quantity of sea-water for the captive fish. At first the provision of 

 a fishpond on the seashore was considered; but on these rugged 

 shores the work of constructing one would certainly be difficult. That 

 solution had, besides, the inconvenience of creating a predetermined 

 and immovable rendezvous, although the place of the next capture 

 could not be foreseen. Used as a kind of aquarium, a sunken small 

 boat seemed to have many advantages to commend it — cheapness, 

 simplicity, rapid installation, mobility — and it was decided to adopt 

 this course. 



'The eighth Latimeria was pulled in from 140 fathoms depth (255 

 metres) at 20.00 hr. on November 12 by a fisherman, Zema ben Said 

 Mohamed, assisted by Madi Bacari, both of the Maijihari quarter of 

 Mutsamudu. Their pirogue was then about 1,000 metres off'shore, 

 opposite Mutsamudu jetty. The sea was very calm and the tide ebbing; 

 it was two days after full moon and the moon had just risen. 



'By the way in which the fish had taken the bait, the usual hunk of 

 "roudi" {Promethichthys prometheus (Cuvier)), Zema, an excellent 

 fisherman, immediately guessed that it must have been a Coelacanth. 

 Nevertheless, he took half an hour and every precaution over hauling 

 it in and, having made sure that it really was a combessa (the local 

 name for the fish), he decided to try for the double reward by keeping it 

 alive. He succeeded, "en le tenant par la main", as he said, in passing 

 a cord in through its mouth and out through the gill-opening, and by 

 means of this cord and of the line (which remained attached to the 

 centre of the anterior part of the floor of the mouth) he led the creature 

 all the way back to Mutsamudu jetty; though sometimes it was the 

 fish that towed the pirogue. 



'Administrateur Lher, as soon as he had been notified (it was by 

 then 20.50 hr), decided, as we had agreed in advance, to sink a whaler 

 immediately in which to place the Latimeria and keep it under the 

 least unfavourable conditions practicable. The receptacle was ready by 

 21.30 hr. and anchored at a few tens of metres off the end of the jetty. 

 The basin of sea-water so contrived measured about 7 metres long by 

 i\ metres wide and 80 cm. deep. The bung had been removed from 

 the bottom of the boat, so as to provide a small but continuous current 

 of water. Besides this, every half-hour the boat was violently rocked 

 in order to renew the greater part of the water. A net covered the top 

 of the whaler to prevent the Coelacanth from escaping, which it never 

 seemed to want to do. The greenish-yellow luminescence of its eyes 

 was very pronounced and could be seen at quite a distance. The colour 

 of the fish was very dark greyish-blue, recalling that of the steel of a 

 watchspring, with fins having clearer grey-bluish reflections. 



