NATURAL HISTORY. 421 



" Small fish appeared to abound at this anchorage (the 

 Calvados group of islands). I had never hefore seen the 

 Sucking-fish (Echeneis remora) so plentiful as at that place ; 

 they caused much annoyance to our fishermen by carrying 

 off baits and hooks, and appeared always on the alert, darting 

 out in a body of twenty or more from under the ship's bottom 

 when any ofTal was thrown overboard. Being quite a nui- 

 sance, and useless as food, Jack often treated them as he would 

 a shark, by sprit-sail yarding, or some less refined mode of 

 torture. One day, some of us while walking the poop had 

 our attention directed to a sucking-fish about two and a half 

 feet in length, which had been made fast by the tail to a billet 

 of wood by a fathom or so of spun yarn, and so turned adrift. 

 An immense striped shark, apparently about fourteen feet 

 in length, which had been cruising .about the ship all the 

 morning, sailed slowly up, and turning slightly on one side, 

 attempted to seize the apparently helpless fish, but the sucker 

 with great dexterity made himself fast in a moment to the 

 shark's back. Off darted the monster at full speed, the sucker 

 holding fast as a limpet to a rock, and the billet towing astern. 

 He then rolled over and over, tumbling about ; when, wearied 

 with his efforts, he lay quiet for a little. Seeing the float, the 

 Shark got it into his mouth, and disengaging the sucker by a 

 tug on the line, made a bolt at the fish ; but his puny antago- 

 nist was again too quick, and, fixing himself close behind the 

 dorsal fin, defied the efforts of the shark to disengage him, al- 

 though he rolled over and over, lashing the water with his tail 

 until it foamed all around. What the final result was, we 

 could not clearly make out." 



THE ANGLER. 



The ANGLER, or FISHING FROG, as it is more generally 

 called, is not uncommon in all the European seas. The pe^- 

 culiar formation of its pectoral fins enables it to crawl for seme 

 distance on land. 



On its head are two elongated bony appendages, curiously 

 articulated to the skull, and capable of movement in any 

 direction. The Angler couches close to the bottom of the 



