112 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



within a comparatively recent date, it was implicitly believed 

 that a Remora, by fixing itself to the bottom of a vessel, 

 was able to retard or arrest its progress, this miraculous 

 property being made accountable by some authorities for 

 that inactivity of the ship commanded by Mark Antony 

 which lost him the famous battle of Actium : a Remora, 

 at an early hour of the engagement, having, it was asserted, 

 affixed itself to the keel of his vessel. This variety of 

 sucking-fish is essentially an accidental visitor to our coasts, 

 its true home being the warmer seas of the tropics ; the 

 Blue Shark (Carcharias glaucus) is the fish with which, 

 following its natural habits, it has been usually found 

 associated when captured in British waters. 



FAMILY X. BLACK-FISHES (Stromateida). 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with very minute scales ; 

 dentition feeble ; the oesophagus armed with numerous 

 barbed, horny processes ; the pre-operculum without a bony 

 stay ; the dorsal fin single, elongate, without a distinct 

 spinous subdivision ; branchiostegal rays seven in number. 



This family contains but a small number of pelagic fish, 

 two of which are rarely taken in British waters. These are 

 the Cornish Centrolophus (Centrolophus britanicus\ No. 42, 

 and the Black-fish (Centrolophus pompilus), No. 43. The last- 

 named species is remarkable for being generally captured 

 in attendance upon certain of the larger Sharks, or even 

 vessels, after the manner of the true Pilot-fish. The 

 fish takes its name from the exceedingly dark umbra- 

 geous hues it assumes when dead ; it attains to a length of 

 from two to three feet. Examples of both species of 

 Centrolophus, must be placed on the list of desiderata for 

 the Museum of Economic Pisciculture. 



