ECHENEIS. 223 



row. It is no uncommon circumstance to find 

 them adhering to vessels, and to sharks, for which 

 latter they seem to have a predilection. This disk 

 is upon the principle of an air-pump, precisely in 

 office like the adhering surface on the breast of 

 the lump-fish. 



All the fins of the remora are small, so that it 

 cannot swim with much speed, but it makes up 

 the defect by fastening itself to any other fish it 

 chooses, out of the reach of its jaws, and thus, 

 without effort, glides through the ocean with prodi- 

 gious velocity, increasing or diminishing the rate, 

 it is supposed, according to its own particular fan- 

 cy, by the irritation it causes with the disk. 



The ancients entertained a notion that this fish 

 had the power of arresting the motion of a vessel 

 at sea. The poets propagated the error, which 

 still has believers among the vulgar. 



" The sucking-fish, beneath, with secret chains, 

 Clings to the keel, — the swiftest ship detains; — 

 And though the canvass bellie with the blast, 

 And boisterous winds bend down the cracking mast, 

 The bark stands firmly rooted in the sea." 



Aristotle's admiration was excited by the or- 

 ganization of the remora, nearly two thousand 

 years ago. The fate of the famous battle of Ac- 

 tium was imagined to have been decided in favor 

 of Augustus, in consequence of the powerful 



