116 
REMORA. 
creed; although it is clear that he knew so little of the fish as 
to confound it with the Common Lamprey.— 
“The Sucking I'ish beneath with secret oMins, 
Clung to the keel the swiftest ship detains. 
The seamen run confused, no labour spared, 
Let fly the sheets, and hoist the topmost yard. 
The master bids them give her all the sails. 
To court the winds and catch the coming gales. 
But though the canvas bellies with the blast. 
And boisterous winds bow down the crackmg mast, 
Tlie bark stands firmly rooted on the sea. 
And will unmoved nor winds nor waves obey. 
Still as when calms have flattened all the plain. 
And infant waves scarce wrinkle on the mam, 
No ship in harbour moored so careless ndes. 
When ruffling waters mark the flowing tides.— 
Such sudden force the floating captive binds, _ 
Though beat by waves, and urged by drivmg winds— 
Appalled the sailors stare through strange surprise. 
Believe they dream, and rub their waking eyes. 
Pliny repeats in prose the same account, and. individual 
instances are handed down by writers who certainly believed 
the occurrences they relate, as due to the cause to which they 
were ascribed; although a more intelligible explanation will 
suggest itself to the mind of a modern reader. It was love 
for Cleopatra that was more powerful than this fish in delaying 
Antony’s ship at the battle of Actium, and the drunken idleness 
of the rowers offers a better explanation for the slow progress 
of the Emperor’s galley, when Caius Caligula made his voyage 
from Astura to Antium. 
There are but few instances in which this fish has been 
obtained in the British Sea; which is the more remarkable, as 
it is its frequent habit to attach itself to the Blue Shark, of 
which hundreds, and perhaps thousands, are caught on^ the 
western coasts of the kingdom every year. There is a specimen 
in the British Museum, which is reported to have been taken 
at Guernsey, but under what circumstances does not appear. 
Dr. Turton is reported to have himself taken an example from 
the back of a Codfish at Swansea; but Mr. Dillwyn, in his 
“Fauna of Swansea,” says that he had strong grounds for 
believing that there was some mistake about it. There remains, 
however, an instance that is unquestioned; as reported by the 
late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, in his “Natural History 
