PlIARYNGOGNATlIS.- 



-FISHES.- 



-SC03IBICliLUCEI)S. 



117 



When one of the sharks to which a Remora is clinging 

 is cauglit by a hook, and is pulled out of the water, the 

 little parasite drops off, and makes for the bottom of 

 the ship. As long as a ship remains within the tropics, 

 numbers of Remorce cling to its bottom, whether tliat 

 be coppered or not, whence they dart off occasionally 

 to pick up any morsels of greasy or farinaceous matter 

 that may be thrown overboard, returning again rapidly 

 to their anchorage. 



Commerson relates that in the Mozambique a species 

 of Remora is employed to catch turtles. A ring with 

 a long cord attached to it is fixed on the tail of the 

 fish, which is carried out to sea in a bucketful of salt 

 water. As soon as a turtle is perceived asleep on the 

 surface, the fishermen paddle towards it very gently, 

 until they come sufiiciently near, when they throw 

 out the Remora, which makes for the dormant turtle 

 with speed, and fastens on it so strongly that both 

 can be drawn to the boat and secured. 



That a large scull of Remorse sticking to a ship will 

 impair her sailing, much as a bottom foul with barna- 

 cles is known to do, can scarcely be doubted ; but tlie 

 Greeks, and after them the Romans, believed with a 

 love of the marvellous inherent to imperfect knowledge, 

 that a single Remora could stop a ship of the largest 

 size ; and I'liny, quoting Trebius Niger as his authority, 



tells us that one not exceeding a foot in length, and of 

 the thickness of five fingers, had that power. Even 

 when preserved in salt, the dead fish was supposed to 

 retain the power of sucking up gold from deep wells. 

 One of these fishes was said to have stayed Anthony's 

 galley in the fight of Actium, allowing Cicsar to obt.dn 

 the advantage in the onset; and when Caligula was 

 returning from Astura to Antium, his ship alone of a 

 fleet of five-banked vessels of war was stopped in spite 

 of the strenuous exertions of eighty row'crs to urge it 

 on. On searching for the cause, a Rc'mora was found 

 sticking to the rudder, which being brought to the 

 emperor, he was very indignant that a thing like a 

 slug should be able to arrest his noble ship. It was 

 taken in his case for a presage of death, for on arriving 

 at Rome he was slain by his soldiers. I'liny, who 

 relates these stories, moralizes on the vanity of man, 

 whose magnificent war-ships, lofty naval bulwarks, 

 with brazen prows and poops, can be overcome and 

 held by the might of a little fish only half a foot long. 

 He seeuis never to have seen the fish of which he thus 

 speaks, but quotes Mutianus, who describes it as being 

 a mollusc, and reports that it detained the ship ordered 

 by Periander to convey a party of noble Corinthian 

 youths to be mutilated by the tyrant of Sicily. It 

 was also thouglit to bo able to delay lawsuits. 



Order III.— PIIARYNGOGNATHS. 



In this order tlie internal skeleton owes its hardness to 

 the osteoid substance of Kolliker, which is cartilage 

 penetrated by earthy matter, but destitute of true bone 

 corpuscles. The swim-bladder is shut, having no 

 jineumatic tube ; there is only a single gill-opening on 

 each side ; the heart and arterial bulb are formed as in 

 the true fishes generally ; and the order has for its 

 distinctive character the union of the right and left 

 under-pliar}Tigeals into one bone. This the term 

 Pharijtifjognathi (Pharyngeal jaws) is meant to denote. 

 In some members of the order the scales are cycloid, 

 in others ctenoid ; some have thoracic ventrals, and 

 others abdominals. 



Family I.— SCOMBERLUCEDS.— (Plate 5, fig. 25.) 



So we have translated the scientific name of this 

 fiimily, Scumbcresocida; as being a somewhat shorter 

 word than Mackerel Pikes.* The technical character 

 of the family is deduced from the form of the jaws, the 

 maxillaries being coaleseent with, or adherent to the 

 premaxillaries, at the corner of the mouth. The fins 

 have no spinous rays, and this family has therefore 

 been reckoned as constituting a sub-order of Malacop- 

 terygian Pharj-ngognaths. They are for the most 

 part thin and often slender fishes, whoso delicate bluish 

 scales, combined in some instances with detached or 

 spurious fiulets on the tail, give them somewhat of a 



♦ Luce is an archaic came for a pike. 



mackerel aspect. Some have a long pike-like bill, 

 well furnished with teeth. 



The genera are — Belone ; Scomhcresox, or Sayris, which have 

 loii^ hills; Hemiramphis^ whose iiiandihle is long and the U])[H-r 

 jjiw ahbreviated ; ExocistitSf with no peculiarity in the snout, 

 but with pectorals large enough to sustain the fish in a short 

 flight through the air. 



As a general rule the Scomberluceds have large, 

 closed air bladders ; but some species of Scomberesux 

 want this viscus, though others have it ; and the same 

 thing occurs in the Mackerels (Scomber). The Balla- 

 haw [Hemiramplius) is remarkable for its cellularly 

 reticulated air-bladder. Fanclax inh.abils the ponds 

 and paddy-fields of Bengal. The British seas nourisli 

 the Gar-fish {Belone vulyarix), and the Mackcrel-gar- 

 rick or Skipper {Scomberesox canqwi) ; also one kind 

 of Flying-fisli [Exocwlus crolam), and perhaps a second 

 kind. Considerable quantities of Gar-fish are eaten 

 by the working classes in London and in the seaports, 

 but many people are afraid of them because their 

 bones have a bright green colour. This tint, however, 

 is produced by an oil, and not by any noxious ingre- 

 dient. The gambols of the Skippers on tiie surface oi 

 the water aUbrd amusement to the residents on the 

 Cornish coasts. 



The Flying-fish visit our seas in comparatively small 

 sculls; but in the warmer districts of tlie ocean they 

 exist in extraordinary numbers, and are never-failing 

 objects of contemplation and speculation to navigators 

 crossing the tropics. Multitudes are taken in the 



