116 REMORA. 



creed; although it is clear that he knew so little of the fish as 

 to confound it with the Common Lamprey. — 



"The Sucking Fish beneath with secret chains, 

 Clung to the keel the swiftest ship detains. 

 The seamen run confused, no labour spared, 

 Let fly the sheets, and hoist the topmost yard, 

 The master bids them give her all the saiL, 

 To court the winds and catch the coming gales. 

 But though the canvas bellies with the blast. 

 And boisterous winds bow down the cracking mast. 

 The bark stands firmly rooted on the sea. 

 And will unmoved nor winds nor waves obey. 

 Still as when calms have flattened all the plain, 

 And infant waves scarce wrinkle on the main, 

 No ship in harbour moored so careless rides, 

 When ruffling waters mark the flowing tides. — 

 Such sudden force the floating captive binds, 

 Though beat by waves, and urged by driving winds — 

 Appalled the sailors stai^e through strange surprise. 

 Believe they dream, and rub their waking eyes." 



Pliny repeats in prose the same account, and individual 

 instances are handed down by writers who certainly believed 

 the occurrences they relate, as due to the cause to which they 

 were ascribed; although a more intelligible explanation will 

 suggest itself to the mind of a modern reader. It was love 

 for Cleopatra that was more powerful than this fish in delaying 

 Antony's ship at the battle of Actimn, and the drunken idleness 

 of the roAvers offers a better explanation for the slow progress 

 of the Emperor's galley, when Caius Caligula made his voyage 

 from Astura to Antium. 



There are but few instances in which this fish has been 

 obtained in the British Sea; which is the more remarkable, as 

 it is its frequent habit to attach itself to the Blue Shark, of 

 which hundreds, and perhaps thousands, are caught on the 

 western coasts of the kingdom every year. There is a specimen 

 in the British Museum, which is reported to have been taken 

 at Guernsey, but under what circumstances does not appear. 

 Dr. Turton is reported to have himself taken an example from 

 the back of a Codfish at Swansea; but Mr. Dillwyn, in his 

 "Fauna of Swansea," says that he had strong grounds for 

 believing that there was some mistake about it. There remains, 

 however, an instance that is unquestioned; as reported by the 

 late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, in his "Natural History 



