90 DEVIL FISHING. 



dashed aside from our prow, as we sped over the 

 waste of waters ? 



But in sober earnest, what could have been the 

 purpose of the fish in following us after his release ? 

 Can the naturalist tell ? Perhaps the sharks were 

 still pursuing him, and he found the presence of 

 the boat a protection ; or perhaps he followed the 

 boat because the slime from his own body, having 

 been rubbed off against its sides, he was misled 

 by the pungency of the smell into the belief that he 

 was following one of his own tribe, whose com- 

 panionship he sought in the extremity of his mis- 

 ery. Some motive there must have been for a 

 proceeding so strange. 



To solve the problem by a reference to the .sense 

 of smell, will not appear unreasonable to those who 

 have remarked how accurately these fish follow each 

 other, though miles apart, and in cases wherein, from 

 the turbid state of the water, sight could have been 

 of no avail for their direction. May not this high 

 leaping from the water, and consequent fall, be de- 

 signed to diffuse this slime and the scent that belongs 

 to it, so as to assure the rest of the tribe of the course 

 taken by their predecessors ? Is it not in truth the 

 means provided by nature by which they signal each 

 other, and contrive to pursue the same track though 

 the expanse of ocean? May not, in short, their 





