34 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



within a comparatively recent date, it was implicitly believed 

 that a Remora, by fixing itself to the bottom of a vessel, 

 was able to retard or arrest its progress, this miraculous , 

 property being made accountable by some authorities for 

 that inactivity of the ship commanded by Mark Antony 

 which lost him the famous battle of Actium : a Remora, 

 at an early hour of the engagement, having, it was asserted, 

 affixed itself to the keel of his vessel. This variety of 

 sucking-fish is essentially an accidental visitor to our coasts, 

 its true home being the warmer seas of the tropics ; the 

 Blue Shark {Carcharias glaucus) is the fish with which, 

 following its natural habits, it has been usually found 

 associated when captured in British waters. 



FAMILY X.— Black-Fishes (Stromateidce). 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with very minute scales ; 

 dentition feeble ; the oesophagus armed with numerous 

 barbed, horny processes ; the pre-operculum without a bony 

 stay ; the dorsal fin single, elongate, without a distinct 

 spinous subdivision ; branchiostegal rays seven in number. 



This family contains but a small number of pelagic fish, 

 two of which are rarely taken in British waters. These are 

 the Cornish Centrolophus {Centrolophus britauicus), No. 42, 

 and the Black-fish (Centrolophus pompilus), No. 43. The last- 

 named species is remarkable for being generally captured 

 in attendance upon certain of the larger Sharks, or even 

 vessels, after the manner of the true Pilot-fish. The 

 fish takes its name from the exceedingly dark umbra- 

 geous hues it assumes when dead ; it attains to a length of 

 from two to three feet. Examples of both species of 

 Centrolophus, must be placed on the list of desiderata for 

 the Museum of Economic Pisciculture. 



