238 THE SUN-FISH. 



through the faculty it possesses of attaching itself to its 

 larger and more powerful neighbours. This it does by- 

 means of a flat sucker on the crown of its head, which it 

 applies, much as a boy does his leather toy, to the skin of 

 whale or shark, and often to the sides of ships — probably 

 mistaking the latter for some huge leviathan of the deep ; 

 and in this way it is conveyed over distances which it 

 would be impossible for it to accomplish with its feeble 

 fins. When a shark is caught at sea, and hauled out of 

 the water, the sucking-fish, which are almost alw^ays dotted 

 over it, drop off and attach themselves to the sides of the 

 ship. It was this habit that made the remora so famous 

 among the Greeks and Romans, and caused them to invent 

 the most absurd stories regarding its occult powders. Thus 

 it was popularly believed to have the power when attached 

 to any moving object, even to the largest ship, of stopping 

 its course, and thus anchoring it firmly even in mid-ocean. 



The curious Sun-fish, which looks as if the lower half of 

 its body had been cut ofi", owes its name to the shining 

 appearance it presents as it floats, a^^parently asleep, on the 

 surface of the water, with its side uppermost. 



Temperate seas abound in calamaries, squids, and 

 poulpes, all included under the name of Cuttle-fishes. These 

 are soft-bodied molluscs, with eight or ten long arms round 

 the head, each arm covered, more or less, with suckers, by 

 which they hold their prey in a deadly embrace. The 

 arms surround the mouth, which is provided with a horny 

 beak, bearing a striking resemblance to the beak of a 



