NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



19 



nearly in the same line : the mouth and the back-bone are underneath. 

 In general these fishes are small; but in 1818, on board H. M. Ship 

 Tortoise, we caught one nearly twenty inches long and twelve round 

 the thickest part of the body ; and on another occasion I took seven of the 

 smaller ones from a single Shark, and observed as many more drop from 

 it when first lifted from the water. 



Another of the Shark's occasional companions is a small, but beautiful, 

 fish, which swims near the surface, and keeps its station a few feet before 

 the nose of the monster : hence it has sometimes been called the Pilot- 

 fish. It is generally about nine inches long, and marked with alternate 

 bands of dark brown and light blue. While preceding its enemy, it 

 seems conscious of security from its own equal speed and nearness to the 

 surface of the water ; for the foe never darts upon his prey, nor does he 

 ever voluntarily raise his nose above water. The Pilot-fish however can 

 be observed in this situation only when it is near a vessel, and then it 

 soon takes refuge close to the side of the rudder, and keeps its station 

 there with astonishing pertinacity ; hence it is frequently called also the 

 Rudder-fish. It evidently delights in the dead water formed by the 

 buttocks of the ship, and will never go so far forward, under the run, 

 as the point where the water brushes against the sides of the vessel and 

 strikes off from them. In this situation perhaps it finds rest from the 

 fatigues of a long chase, and security from its ravenous pursuer ; for the 

 Shark, unless urged by hunger, will never approach the Counter of a 

 ship, nor come beneath any thing which overhangs his eyes. What the 

 Remora lives upon I know not, for it would never take a bait, and its 

 activity secures it from being caught by any other means. 



Porpoises abound in every part of the Atlantic, and possess the same 

 habits as those which are found in narrower seas. I have often been 

 desirous of securing a large one in the deeper waters, and to ascertain 

 whether they find sand in those depths of the ocean which we cannot 

 fathom. We once struck one which might have answered my purpose, 

 but his weight and strength destroyed the harpoon before we could get 

 a tackle ready to secure him. The wound, with which he escaped, was 



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