201 



These curious animals are attended by a train of beautiful 

 tish, six or seven inches long, marked with dark stripes over the 

 pale hues of the iris, like the pilot fish, which always accompany 

 the shark, and like them I never saw these little fish but under 

 the Medusa; whose protection they seem instinctively to claim 

 from the bonitos, albacores, and other voracious fish, which are 

 continually pursuing them and the flying-fish; but these have the 

 advantage, for the instant their gigantic enemy approaches, they 

 swim under the Medusa, which is so poisonous that no fish at- 

 tempts to touch it; and it would be impossible to snap up one 

 without the other, so closely do the little fugitives adhere to their 

 protector; while the unfortunate flying-fish, in endeavouring to 

 escape a watery foe, are devoured by the aquatic birds conti- 

 nually hovering over them. 



The sharks on the Guinea coast are of a tremendous size, and 

 often follow the slave vessels from thence to the West India islands; 

 to feast upon the bodies of the negroes, who are so fortunate 

 as to die on the vo3 r age, and escape from christian bondage. 



" Lur'd by the scent 

 " Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death, 

 " His jaws-terrific arm'd with three-fold fate, 

 " Behold die direful shark ! he cuts the flood 

 ' ' Swift as the gale can bear the ship along ; 

 " And from the partners of that cruel trade, 

 " Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons, 

 " Demands his share of prey : their mangled limbs 

 " Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas 

 " With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal." 



Thomson. 

 VOL. II. 2D 



