98 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



this fish with the gi-ains, Holder thought that he had been so named, 

 but inquiries showed a totally different origin. It seems that years 

 before this man had lived on Sea Horse Key in the Bahamas and had 

 there got his name because of a horrible experience he had had with 

 the barracuda fish. On the occasion of a great storm, a small ship 

 was driven on the reef and all on board washed overboard and drowned 

 save one woman who was lashed to the rigging. This man, McNally 

 by name, threw off his clothes, tied a light line around his waist, and 

 despite the dissuasions of his friends began his hard swim to the vessel. 

 Several times on his journey he was seen to strike at something, and 

 on his return (having sent the women in tied to the Une), he was seen 

 to fight with something and once was pulled under. His friends 

 thought that he had encountered a shark, but when he came to shore 

 it was found that both going and coming he had been attacked and 

 seriously bitten by the fish whose name he afterward bore. 



Further, Holder was told of a number of men who had gone over- 

 board in channels between the Keys and who had been almost killed 

 by these vicious fish. He also relates an incident, which seemingly 

 fell under his own observation, of a barracuda which had been for- 

 gotten in the well of a fishing sloop. When a man went down into the 

 well to repair it he was attacked by the fish and maimed for Ufe. 



Finally, as bearing out the present writer's statements at the begin- 

 ning of this section, Henderson (1916) may be quoted that: 



"As to the picona danger, not much can be said beyond mentioning the 

 general fear of this aggressive fish. ... He prefers rocky places about the 

 reefs, where, lying motionless near the bottom, he darts at his prey with a 

 swiftness that baffles the eye. His sinister appearance, astonishing quickness, 

 and occasional habit of ranging the water in schools, like squadrons of sub- 

 marine destroyers, have combined to give hun a bad name. ... As a matter 

 of fact we feared these [barracudas] more than sharks." 



Captain Wilson writes of the Bahama barracuda : 



"I know of a case of a man who was walldng quickly on a shallow reef 

 beside deep v/ater, and a barracuda flashed up and hit him on the foot. In 

 this case, the cause, I think, was his white foot going in and out of the water 

 quickly, for anything that moves quickly they will flash at. They give a 

 ghastly bite." 



Thus we have abundant evidence of the ferocity of S. barracuda in 

 Gulf-Caribbean waters and of its dangers to man. Turning to the 

 Pacific, it is interesting to note that the California form, S. argentea, 

 which attains a length of 5 feet, is entirely harmless. In the southern 

 part of this great ocean, however, is found the formidable S. commer- 

 sonii, which has been known to reach the great size of 8 feet. On 

 the authority of Andrew Garrett, Gunther states that such large 

 individuals are extremely dangerous to bathers. Much more circum- 

 stantial, however, is the following interesting present-day account 



