AFTER THE HURRICANE. 229 



But between the two of us we finally got the fish 

 at the other end up in sight, and I found that my 

 finny friend had afiixed himself to a shark about eight 

 feet long. He was too big to try to coax into the 

 boat, and I made up my mind that if he did try it I 

 would get out. He had a mouth as broad as the big- 

 gest watermelon I ever saw, set with teeth as sharp as 

 needles, around a cavern that looked like the top of a 

 well. But, big as he was, my little fish held him until 

 we got them near the surface, when Thomas Ned 

 whacked him over the head with a club and took him 

 into the boat without any trouble. I noticed that as 

 soon as they reached the surface my live bait let go 

 his hold and swam away. 



"Well, in less than three hours we had all the fish 

 we could carry back in the canoe, and then I proposed 

 that we should set these tireless fishers free ; which we 

 finally did, and I had the satisfaction of seeing them 

 swim off without any lines attached to their tails, and 

 presumably go a-fishing on their own account. 



This fish, which is put to so strange a use, is called 

 the remora, and is supposed to be the same that stopped 

 the vessels of the ancients by attaching itself to their 

 bottoms, like a barnacle. This it does, at any rate, by 

 means of the powerful sucking-disk on the top of its 

 head ; and not only to vessels, but to other fish, as we 

 have seen. It will not let go its hold, unless exposed 

 to the air, no matter how hard one may pull at its 

 tail, and this adhesive quality has been utilized by the 

 fishermen in these islands, ever since the time Colum- 

 bus came here. That navigator makes mention of it. 



