Pharyhgognaths.- 
•FISHES. SCOMBEKLUCEDS. 
117 
When one of the sharks to which a Remora is clinging 
is caught by a hook, and is pulled out of the water, the 
little parasite drops off, and makes for the bottom of 
the ship. As long as a ship remains within the tropics, 
numbers of Remorse cling to its bottom, whether that 
be coppered or not, whence they dart off occasionally 
to pick up any morsels of greasy or farinaceous matter 
that may be thrown overboard, returning again rapidly 
to their anchorage. 
Commerson relates that in the Mozambique a species 
of Remora is employed to catch turtles. A ring with 
a long cord attached to it is fixed on the tail of the 
fish, which is carried out to sea in a bucketful of salt 
water. As soon as a turtle is perceived asleep on the 
surface, the fishermen paddle towards it very gently, 
until they come sufficiently near, when they throw 
out the Remora, which makes for the dormant turtle 
with speed, and fastens on it so strongly that both 
can be drawn to the boat and secured. 
That a large scull of Remorse sticking to a ship will 
impair her sailing, much as a bottom foul with barna- 
cles is known to do, can scarcely be doubted ; but the 
Greeks, and after them the Romans, believed with a 
love of the marvellous inherent to imperfect knowledge, 
that a single Remora could stop a ship of the largest 
size ; and Pliny, quoting Trcbius Niger as his authority, 
tells us that one not exceeding a foot in length, and of 
the thickness of five fingers, had that power. Even 
when preserved in salt, the dead fish was supposed to 
retain the power of sucking up gold from deep wells. 
One of these fishes was said to have stayed Anthony’s 
galley in the fight of Actium, allowing Caesar to obtain 
the advantage in the onset; and when Caligula was 
returning from Astura to Antium, his ship alone of a 
fleet of five-banked vessels of war was stopped in spite 
of the strenuous exertions of eighty rowers to urge it 
on. On searching for the cause, a Remora was found 
sticking to the rudder, which being brought to the 
emperor, he was very indignant that a thing like a 
slug should be able to arrest his noble ship. It was 
taken in his case for a presage of death, for on arriving 
at Rome he was slain by his soldiers. Pliny, who 
relates these stories, moralizes on the vanity of man, 
whose magnificent war-ships, lofty naval bulwarks, 
with brazen prows and poops, can be overcome and 
held by the might of a little fish only half a foot long. 
He seems never to have seen the fish of which he thus 
speaks, but quotes Mutianus, who describes it as being 
a mollusc, and reports that it detained the ship ordered 
by Periander to convey a party of noble Corinthian 
youths to be mutilated by the tyrant of Sicily. It 
was also thought to be able to delay lawsuits. 
Order III.— PHARYNGOGNATHS. 
In this order the internal skeleton owes its hardness to 
the osteoid substance of Kolliker, which is cartilage 
penetrated by earthy matter, but destitute of true bone 
corpuscles. The swim-bladder is shut, having no 
pneumatic tube ; there is onl}' a single gill-opening on 
each side , the heart and arterial bulb are formed as in 
the true fishes generally ; and the order has for its 
distinctive character the union of the right and left 
under-pharyngeals into one bone. This the term 
Pharyngognathi (Pharyngeal jaws) is meant to denote. 
In some members of the order the scales are cycloid, 
in others ctenoid ; some have thoracic ventrals, and 
others abdominals. 
Family I.— SCOMBERLUCEDS.— (Plate 5, fig. 25.) 
So we have translated the scientific name of this 
family, Scomberesocidce, as being a somewhat shorter 
word than Mackerel Pikes.* The technical character 
of the family is deduced from the form of the jaws, the 
maxillaries being coalescent with, or adherent to the 
pi'emaxillaries, at the corner of the mouth. The fins 
have no spinous rays, and this family has therefore 
been reckoned as constituting a sub-order of Malacop- 
terygian Pharjmgognaths, Thej' are for the most 
part thin and often slender fishes, whose delicate bluish 
scales, combined in some instances with detached or 
spurious fiiilets on the tail, give them somewhat of a 
• Luce is au archaic name for a pike. 
mackerel aspect. Some have a long pike-like bill, 
well furnished with teeth. 
The genera are — Belone ; Scomberesox, or Sayris, which have 
long bills ; Hemiramphis, whose mandible is long and the upper- 
jaw abbreviated; Exocostus^ with no peculiarity in the snout, 
but with pectorals large enough to sustain the fish in a sliort 
flight through the air. 
As a general rule the Scomberluceds have large, 
closed air bladders ; but some species of Scomberesox 
want this viscus, though others have it ; and the same 
thing occurs in the Mackerels {Scomber). The Balla- 
haw {Hemiramphus) is remarkable for its cellularly 
reticulated air-bladder. Panchax inhabits the ponds 
and paddy-fields of Bengal. The British seas nourish 
the Gar-fish {Belone vulgaris), and the Mackerel-gar- 
rick or Skipper {Scomberesox camperi) ; also one kind 
of Flying-fish {Exocoetus evolans), and perhaps a second 
kind. Considerable quantities of Gar-fish are eaten 
by the working classes in London and in the seaports, 
but many people are afraid of them because their 
hones have a bright green colour. This tint, however, 
is produced by an oil, and not by any noxious ingre- 
dient. The gambols of the Skippers on the surface of 
the water afford amusement to the residents on the 
Cornish coasts. 
The Flying-fish visit our seas in comparatively small 
sculls; but in the warmer districts of the ocean they 
exist in extraordinary numbers, and are never-failing 
objects of contemplation and speculation to navigators 
crossing the tropics. Multitudes are taken in the 
