FISHES. 643 



ably attaches itself to the dorsum and flank of the shark, and some- 

 times weighs a pound and a quarter. " I have found," Amtes a friend, 

 " as many as seven on one shark." It is never solitary, and makes 

 long voyages on this monstrous animal locomotive, and that without 

 fatigue or danger, for its enemies are kept at a distance by the for- 

 midable monster which carries it. 



The family of LophiidcB are particularly distinguished by having 

 the carpal bones very long, forming a sort of arm at the extremity of 

 which are the pectoral fins ; it includes the fishing Frog {Lophws 

 piscatorins), Fig. 404, remarkable for the excessive circinnferenre of 





Fig. 403. — Echineis remora. 



the head and shoulders as compared v.ith the rest of the body, the 

 immense opening of its jaws, armed with pointed teeth, and the 

 cutaneous jagged stripes of various lengths with which it bristles at 

 many points. Its skin is soft, smooth, and without scales or other 

 asperities ; the carpal bones support the pectorals, and its shape and 

 other peculiarities combine to render it a hideous and forbidding 

 object, well calculated in ignorant and superstitious times to frighten 

 the multitude. The remains of this fish, prepared in such a manner 

 as to be transparent, and rendered luminous by a lamp enclosed in 

 its interior, has often helped to deceive and frighten the timid by its 

 fantastic appearance. 



The Fishing-Frog, Lophius piscatorius, Linn. (Fig. 404), often 

 attains the length of four or five feet, lives in the sand, or sunk in the 

 mud, leaving the long and movable filaments with which the head is 



p p 2 



