REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH. 129 



pilot. It appears that this propensity of adhering 

 to other fishes was formerly turned to account by 

 the Indians of Jamaica and Cuba, who used this 

 animal, or rather one of the same genus (Echineis 

 naucrates), in catching fish, as hawks are em- 

 ployed in taking other birds. " They kept them/' 

 says Mr. Bingley, " for the purpose, and had them 

 regularly fed. The owner, on a calm morning, 

 would cany one of them out to sea, secured to his 

 canoe by a slender but strong line, many fathoms 

 in length ; and the moment the creature saw a fish 

 in the water, though at a great distance, it would 

 dart away with the swiftness of an arrow, and soon 

 fasten upon it. The Indian, in the mean time, 

 loosened and let go the line, which was furnished 

 with a buoy which floated on the surface of the 

 ocean, and marked the course the sucking-fish had 

 taken; and he pursued it in his canoe, until he 

 perceived his game to be nearly exhausted. He 

 then, taking up the buoy, gradually drew the line 

 towards the shore, the sucking-fish still adhering 

 with so inflexible a tenacity to his prey as not 

 easily to be removed." A similar employment of 

 the latter species of sucking-fish is said, by Com- 

 merson, as quoted by Lacepede, to be still very 

 common about the coasts of Mozambique, where 

 they use it principally in taking turtles. For this 

 purpose a ring is fastened round the tail of the 

 animal, to which a long cord is attached ; and thus 

 secured, it is allowed to approach the turtles, as 

 they lie sleeping on the water, to the breast of one 



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