164 CHESIL BEACH FISH. 



fish feel tired and in want of rest, the fishermen's belief is that 

 they communicate their wishes to the big fish, who immediately 

 opens his mouth, upon which they all swim down his throat and 

 remain inside him until the danger is over. I think that some one 

 said that he had seen them do so, but I do not now remember who 

 it was. 



Yarrcll states that the evidence as to the object with which the 

 pilot fish accompanies its large companion is contradictory, and says 

 that some have considered that the pilot fish directs the large fish 

 to its food ; others that it merely goes for what it can pick up of 

 the remains of the large fishes' dinner. He also says ("Yarrell's 

 British Fishes," edition 1836, vol. i., p. 150) " M. Geoffrey 

 relates an instance of two pilots that took great pains to direct a 

 shark towards a bait." On the other hand Colonel Hamilton 

 Smith has furnished an account of an opposite character, which is 

 thus related in Griffith's "Animal Kingdom, Fishes," vol. x., p. 

 636 " Captain Richards, R.N., during his last station in the 

 Mediterranean, saw on a fine day a blue shark which followed the 

 ship, attracted, perhaps, by a corpse which had been committed to 

 the waves. After some time a shark hook baited with pork was 

 flung out. The shark, attended by four pilot fish (Scomber ductor), 

 repeatedly approached the bait ; and every time that he did so one 

 of the pilots preceding him was distinctly seen from the taffrail of 

 the ship to run his snout against the side of the shark's head, to 

 turn it away. After stirne farther play the fish swam off in the 

 wake of the vessel, ,his dorsal fin being long distinctly visible above 

 the water. When he had gone, however, a considerable distance 

 he suddenly turned round, darted after the vessel, and before the 

 pilot fish could overtake him and interfere, snapped at the bait and 

 was taken. In hoisting him up one of the pilots was observed to 

 cling to his side until he was half above water, when it fell off. 

 All the pilot fishes then swam about awhile, as if in search of their 

 friend, with every apparent mark of anxiety and distress, and 

 afterwards darted suddenly down into the depths of the sea. 

 Colonel H. Smith has himself witnessed with intense curiosity an 



