The Involuntary Host 217 



it a tube to show how it has bored its way to where 

 it is found. I have also found several curious living 

 things in the Bonito's maw, but have never been able 

 to determine whether they were regular lodgers or 

 just visitors in the ordinary course, but being possessed 

 of greater vitality than the other creatures upon which 

 the fish has fed, had not yet succumbed and become 

 subject to the digestive process. 



A very instructive study is that of the contents 

 of the stomachs of deep-sea fish, for they are by no 

 means (as might be supposed) composed of merely 

 flying-fish and squid. There are often to be found 

 small fish of shape quite unknown to us hitherto, and 

 certainly never seen by sailors. Fish, we must assume, 

 that live within the eater's range of depth, but never 

 come to the surface voluntarily. 



Of the many services rendered by Bonito to ship- 

 wrecked people at almost the last gasp for want of 

 food, there is no need to speak ; it will be at once 

 understood that so plentiful, sociable, and easily 

 allured a fish as the Bonito, must often have furnished 

 a meal to people who would otherwise have starved. 

 And no one, who has not been driven to it, can know 

 how nice a Bonito collop, cut off the quivering body 

 and laid upon the almost scorching wood in the full 

 blaze of the sun, until it curls up and turns quite 

 black, can teiste. Only of course, it presupposes 

 strong teeth and wolfish hunger. 



There is a sort of poor relation to the Bonito, 

 yet resembling much more closely the great albacore 

 in the contour of its body and the arrangement of its 

 fins, to which sailors have given the trivial name 

 of ' Skip-jack.' Scientifically it is termed Thynnus 

 sarda, and has even been found as far north as the 

 mouth of the Esk. Only one specimen though. It 



