130 REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH. 



of which it soon attaches itself, and it is thus easily 

 drawn ashore. 



The method of employing suckers, in attaching 

 themselves to soUd substances, is not peculiar to 

 fishes, some other maritime animals, as the cuttle- 

 fish, using such suckers very extensively ; and the 

 force with which it is capable of adhering to rocks 

 by this means has been already alluded to, when 

 we were speaking of the muscular power which 

 it occasionally, at the same time, exerts. These 

 suckers (wood-cut, fig. 1.) have the appearance of 

 little cups; and, with them, the numerous long 

 arms of the animal are so plentifully studded, that 

 their united power must be enormous. 



But, besides the principle of suction, some fishes, 

 such as the eel, seem to secure their footing, at 

 least when on land, by another contrivance, being 

 supported, under unfavourable circumstances, by 

 the viscidity of the fluid with which their body is 

 smeared ; in the same way as the garden-snail em- 

 ploys, for this purpose, in addition to the vacuum 

 formed by its foot, the mucilaginous matter on the 

 surface of this organ. It is thus that eels contrive 

 to ascend the smoothest posts of flood-gates, and 

 other peq:>endicular sm'faces arising from water; 

 projecting first the heads and a part of their bodies, 

 and keeping these closely in contact with the wood, 

 tiU the mucilaginous matter has become sufficiently 

 inspissated to give them a firm hold, when they ad- 

 vance higher and higher by the motions of their 

 spine, till they reach the dam above, frequently at 



