22 FISHES OF FANCY. 



chiefly to poets and heralds, till a couple of centuries 



ago. 



" The sucking-fish, with secret chains 



Clung to the keel, the swiftest ship detains." 



Of late years, of course, this fancy has been exploded, 

 and instead of being the terrible thing antiquity thought it, 

 the remora is really like the little street boy who gets on 

 to the step of the omnibus when the conductor is not 

 looking, and gets a penny ride for nothing. For the fish 

 attaches itself to the shark and others, merely, it would 

 seem, for the luxury of cheap travelling. Yet knowing 

 this, what are we to say of Mr. Francis Holmwood's 

 astounding discovery at Zanzibar of the "sucking-fish" 

 that is used to catch sharks and crocodiles ? Here, at any 

 rate, are his own words, as quoted from the " Exhibition 

 Catalogue," p. 382 : — 



" Young chazo (sucking-fish) being secured, a ring or hoop of iron 

 is let into the tails ; they are then kept in a small canoe, the water in 

 which is changed from time to time. They are fed sparingly with 

 pieces of meat and fish, and, if they survive the confinement, soon 

 become used to captivity and to being handled. When they have 

 reached two or three pounds in weight, they are strong enough for use, 

 and are taken out for trial. A line is fastened to the iron hoop, which 

 has become embedded in a firm growth, and on sighting a tortoise or 

 turtle, the chaze is put overboard. It has to be prevented from affixing 

 itself to the canoe, and then it soon makes for the nearest floating 

 object, to which it instantly adheres, and generally allows itself to be 

 drawn with its prey towards the boats. Should it prove too timid to 

 stand this treatment it is discarded as worthless, but if it will hold on, 

 it soon gets bold enough to retain its hold until taken into the boat, 

 when it is at once detached from the prize by being drawn off side- 

 ways, and being returned to its tank is at once fed. They are said 

 soon to learn what is required of them, and it is reported that they 

 have been trained to catch sharks. When in Madagascar some years 

 ago, I was told that the " Tarundu," which the fish is there called, 

 had been trained to catch crocodiles, numbers of which infested the 

 rivers and, as I observed, came down to the neighbourhood of the 



