18 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



the pudendum of one, which had been some time dead, it was suddenly- 

 seized with strong convulsive motions. The heart, after it had been 

 taken from its place twenty-four hours and laid upon the warm hand, 

 contracted with almost its natural force ; yet when this has been pierced 

 with a musket-ball the fish died almost instantaneously. Hunger com- 

 pels them to feed upon each other ; and when nearly of equal size, their 

 battles seem to be violent : one with an empty stomach, and several 

 bleeding wounds, was taken immediately after we had seen his opponent 

 escape. It is believed that sharks will not attack a man in the water so 

 long as he keeps in motion ; certainly some were observed under a raft 

 upon which several seamen were exposed for four days, near the coast of 

 Brazil, and no person was injured by them, though sitting almost up to 

 the breast in water, and frequently one or other of them tumbling off 

 by the uneasiness of the motion : yet I conceive that these were not 

 hungry, and that this species of fishes ought never to be trusted. The 

 suspicious caution with which they take their prey, sometimes, though 

 not always, turning upon their backs to do so, gives to the Indians of 

 South America an opportunity of attacking and overcoming them, even 

 in their own element: for, aware that the eyes are so situated with 

 respect to the mouth, that the animal cannot see his object, at the moment 

 when he wishes to seize it, nor the enemy who intends to destroy him, 

 they dive and dexterously pierce him from below. 



The Remora, or Sucking-fish, attaches itself to the Shark by means 

 of a striated membrane upon its throat, which enables it to create a 

 vacuum on the skin, and to bring into operation the external pressure 

 of the atmosphere and the water. Its food consists of the scales and 

 slimy substance of the Shark's back ; and in dissecting the fish I have 

 always found in its stomach a portion of them undigested. The provi- 

 sions of nature, in the formation of this species, are wonderful ; the 

 upper jaw is longer than the lower, and the teeth are so placed as to 

 cut horizontally, and thus enable the animal to feed upon a flat and 

 smooth surface : the head is placed, with respect to the vertebras, in an 

 inverted position : the eyes, the gullet, and the anus, are upwards, and 



