TURTLES AND TURTLE CATCHING 



have tried every means of solving. A bullet is effective, 

 if of the right sort and fired at the right spot ; and many 

 Englishmen who have tried turtle-shooting in the Indian 

 Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico speak highly of the sport. 

 But men killed turtles long before guns were heard of. 

 How? 



In his progress towards civilisation man adapts quite as 

 often as he invents; and just as the fisherman made use of 

 the wind as a means of propulsion for his boat, centuries 

 before engine-building was ever thought of, so he pressed 

 the cormorant or the gull or other animals into his 

 service, often before more artificial means had occurred 

 to him. Some of these 1 " adaptations," as we know, survive 

 to this day, and among them the using of a fish as a 

 turtle- catcher. There is a curious little creature called 

 the remora or sucking-fish, found in the Mediterranean, 

 the tropics, and sometimes as far north as our own coast. 

 Its special characteristic is an elongated disc which covers 

 its head and extends over part of its body, and by means 

 of this it can fix itself firmly to any object by suction. 

 From the remora's habit of clinging to other fish or to 

 the bottoms of boats, it soon suggested itself as an 

 excellent turtle-catcher, for only very great force or care- 

 ful leverage can dislodge it when it has once fastened 

 itself on to anything ; and to this use it is still put in 

 certain parts of the Mediterranean. 



When such fish happen to be netted they are at once 

 placed in pots of water and carefully fed and looked after 

 by the fishermen ; a tight-fitting ring is fixed round the 

 slender part of the body just above the tail, to which a 



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