THE BEMORA OR SUCKING FI8H. 275 



arraign the providence of God, as if it were cruel and un- 

 kind: a sudden termination of existence is the most merci- 

 ful mode, as far as we can conceive, by which the overflow 

 of animal life could be checked. 

 As James Montgomery says: 



*' 'Twas wisdom, mercy, goodness that ordain'd 

 Life in such infinite profusion — Death 

 So sure, so prompt, so multiform to those 

 That never sinn'd, that know not guilt, that fear 

 No wrath to come, and have no heaven to lose." 



A very interesting family of fishes, for the peculiar prop- 

 erties which they possess, are the Sucking-fishes — remarka- 

 ble for having the ventral fins united under the surface of 

 the body to form the apparatus which distinguishes them. 

 To this family belong the Sea-Owl Snail, and one or two 

 British species, including the Lump-sucker. This animal 

 has a grotesque and clumsy form, but the colors which orna- 

 ment it are very fine, combining various shades of blue, pur- 

 ple, and orange. It attains a tolerably large size — about 

 nineteen inches — weighing sometimes seven or eight pounds. 

 Its sucker is so powerful that a pail, containing some gallons 

 of water, has been lifted, when one of these fishes contained 

 in it was taken by the tail. 



To this family Cuvier also referred the far-famed Remora ; 

 noticing, however, the different position of the sucking disc, 

 and other important distinctions, on account of which a very 

 different place is now assigned to it. The use of the suck- 

 ing apparatus is, however, much the same — that of attacliing 

 the animal to fixed substances, so that it may remain and 

 obtain its food, where otherwise it would be swept away by 

 the current. 



The remora was the subject of much imaginative terror 

 to the ancients, who believed that it had the power to im- 

 pede or stop the course of a ship. Oppian says: 



