294 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. LIII 



This account is not found in the English translation 

 of Sparrman's voyage, and I have not had access to the 

 original Swedish edition, but it is found in the French 

 edition in a sort of appendix to that section describing 

 South Africa and is credited to Middleton's "Geog- 

 raphy." Inspection of volume I (1777) of this latter 

 work revealed the account substantially as given above, 

 but in quotation marks with no hint whatever of its ulti- 

 mate source. 



Humboldt (1826) refers to a similar incident related 

 by Captains Dampier and Eogers. Dampier was worked 

 through twice without finding the reference, but a third 

 going through his ''Voyages" page by page revealed it 

 as an annex to part 3 of his volume III, "A Discourse of 

 Winds," etc. (6th edition, 1729). Middleton has copied 

 it almost word for word, so it need not be repeated here. 

 It will be of interest, however, to note that Dampier says 

 that this "annexed paper" was "received from my inge- 

 nious Friend, Capt. Eogers, who is lately gone to that 

 place ('Natal in Africk') : and hath been there several 

 times before."* 



It must be remembered that Holmwood wrote of a fish 

 called Tarundu used in Madagascar as a living fish hook, 

 and Lacepede quotes Commerson that a sucking fish is 

 so used in the Isle of France as well as in the Mozambique 

 country and lastly that Dampier quotes Eogers as to this 

 use also in Madagascar. Acting on these hints a good 

 deal of time has been spent in hunting for such accounts 

 not only in books on the fishes of these islands but also 

 in books of travel and at this writing three corroboratory 

 accounts have been found. The first is to be found in 

 Pollen's work on the fisheries of Madagascar (1874). 



letter from Eogers. 



