SUB-BRACHIAN MALACOPTERYGII. 167 



the inhabitants assured him that they were wont 

 to employ it, by fastening it with a cord to a boat, 

 and that it fixed itself by the head to the breast- 

 plate of the first turtle it met, with so much force, 

 that the latter could not escape. Commerson has 

 likewise reported something of the same kind."* 



The ancients, however, were wont to attribute 

 to these fishes the power even to arrest a ship in 

 full sail ; and the Romans consoled themselves for 

 the loss of the battle of Actium, by imputing it to 

 the delay of Antony's ship by an Echenei's : 



" Puppim retinet in mediis echeneYs aquis." LUCAN. 



Anim. Kingd. vol. ix. p. 86. 



