150 SCOMBERIDJE. 



The Pilot-fish is supposed to have been the Pompilius of 

 the ancients ; a fish which is said to have pointed out the 

 desired course to doubtful navigators, accompanied them 

 throughout their voyage, and left them when they reached 

 the wished-for land. The fish was therefore considered 

 sacred, and was invested with a Greek name, which signifies 

 ' a companion .' 



Besides this habit of attending ships during their course 

 at sea, and that for weeks and even months together, of 

 which some instances will be quoted, the Pilot-fish also ac- 

 companies large Sharks : but their motives for this association 

 have been variously interpreted. By some it has been con- 

 sidered that the Pilot-fish acted as a guide to direct the 

 Shark to his food ; while others state, that when a Shark and 

 his Pilot were following a vessel, if meat was thrown over- 

 board cut into small pieces, and therefore unworthy the 

 Shark's attention, the Pilot-fish showed his true motive of 

 action by deserting both Shark and ship to feed at his leisure 

 on the morsels. 



M. Geoffroy 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. page 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 Scom- 

 ber 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 some far- 



