14 Fish Stories 



learned the art of making the tourist trade useful in building 

 up their fortunes. 



Hegesidemus tells of a boy, named Hermias, who lived 

 on the island of Iasus, who traversed the sea on the back of 

 a friendly dolphin. One day, during these travels, a storm 

 arose, and Hermias was washed off and drowned, where- 

 upon the dolphin, realizing that it was in fault, " lay down 

 on dry land and there expired." 



Sir John Mandeville was a famous story-teller of his time, 

 and in speaking of the kingdom of Talonach, said : " And 

 that land hathe a marvale, that is in no other land, for all 

 manner of fyshes of the sea cometh there once a yeare, one 

 after the other, and lyeth him neere the lande, sometime on 

 the lande." 



Marco Polo also told fish stories, fishes that appeared 

 in a convent stream only in Lent, and always on the fast 

 days, a matter of great convenience to the brothers. Equally 

 remarkable is the story of Edward Webbe, 1590, who de- 

 scribes a stream in Syria in which the fish will not bite the 

 lure of a Jew, though a Christian, or a Turk, can take them 

 with ease. But, perhaps in this case, we have heard but 

 two or three sides of the story. 



Pliny tells us the ancient story of the remora, which in- 

 terferes with ships. It held back the ships at the battle of 

 Actium, and Mucianus stopped a ship, which was carrying 

 off a lot of children to be mutilated by Periander. 



John Hance of Bright Angel, who needs no further intro- 

 duction to any one who has visited the Grand Canon of the 

 Colorado, likes to tell this tale of his experience in angling 

 in a bend of the river just below (a mile below as the crow 

 flies) the hotel at Grand View. There is in the Colorado a 

 large chub, a bony toothless fish, the squaw-fish, which, al- 

 though it is a chub or minnow, reaches a very large size, 

 ten or twelve pounds at least. It will bite freely at a hook 

 baited with a worm or a grasshopper. 



One summer day Hance was deep in the canon, fishing 



