238 SUCKING-FISH AND SHARK. 



Memora) so plentiful as at this place 5 they caused 

 much annoyance to our fishermen hy carr3Tng' 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 offal was thro\\Ti over- 

 board. Being quite a nuisance, and useless as food, 

 Jack often treated them as he would a shark, by 

 " spritsail-yarding'," or some still less refined mode 

 of torture. One day some of us while waUdng- 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 turned adrift. An immense 

 striped shark, apparently about fourteen feet ia 

 length, which had been cruizing about the ship aH 

 the morning, sailed slowly up, and, trnming- sKghtly 

 on one side, attempted to seize the apparently help- 

 less fish, but the sucker, with great dexterity, made 

 himself fast in a moment to the shark's back— off 

 darted the monster at fidl speed, — the sucker holding 

 on fast as a limpet to a rock, and the billet towing 

 astern. He then roUed over and over, tumbhng about, 

 when, wearied with his efforts, he laid quiet for a 

 little. Seeing the float, the shark got it into his 

 mouth, and disengaging the sucker by the tug on 

 the line, made a bolt at the fishj but his puny 

 antagonist was again too quick, and fixing himself 

 close behind the dorsal fin, defied the efforts of 

 the shark to disengage him, although he rolled over 

 and over, lashing the water with his tail until it 



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