The Most Sociable Fish 273 



Whether they come for protection, or food, or both, 

 I have no means of knowing, but their appearance 

 so far from land and over such profound depths is 

 certainly very curious. They take a bait of meat 

 readily and are very sweet eating, although I never 

 caught one larger than half a pound weight. In 

 shape they resemble a perch, but, as with mackerel, 

 there is an almost total absence of scales and, as with 

 the albacore, there are some homy conical little plates 

 arranged along the posterior third of the lateral Une. 

 All around Australasia there are to be found congeners 

 of this little fish, called by sailors Cavalle. They grow 

 to a large size compared with the Brama, being often 

 caught twenty-five pounds in weight. Also many of 

 them are more shield-like — ^wider, that is, in proportion 

 to their length. They are almost entirely silvern in 

 colour, and the effect when, in hauling one up on a 

 brilliantly sunny day, it suddenly turns its broadside 

 to the sun is perfectly dazzling to the eyes. They 

 are a splendidly game fish, as weU as being very good 

 eating. 



Of the Echineis Remora, or Sucking-fish, of the 

 mackerel tribe, I cannot speak positively. I have 

 never seen one, although of the shark-hke sucking- 

 fish I have seen many hundreds and caught many 

 scores. According to ichthyologists, however, it is 

 fairly plentiful and acts in precisely the same way 

 as does the Remora, of which I have written before 

 at considerable length. 



It must not be imagined, because of the con- 

 clusion of this chapter, that I have dealt in any way 

 exhaustively with the Scombridae. As I premised, 

 only a few fairly well-known specimens could be dealt 

 with in the space at my disposal, while the family is 

 the largest of all known in the mighty ocean. 



18 



