Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/41

Rh The entertaining writer whom we have just quoted gives a more elaborate account of this same incident, and manner of fishing with the Reversus, in the work by which he is best known, the "Decades of the Ocean," first published in 1511; but it is not necessary to follow these later modifications.

The next writer to treat of the same theme, with considerable en- largement of detail, is the well-known historian Oviedo, whose "Sumario" was published in 1516, and larger work on the "History of the Indies" in 1535. Oviedo gives a lively account of the intelligence of the "fisherman-fish," which he asserts was reared in captivity by the natives and trained to catch prey "as huntsmen or falconers use hounds or hawks in their game." But in his description of the fish itself Oviedo has strangely confused the characters of the sucking-fish with those of Diodon. Thus, he speaks of the "reverse" as being covered with imbricating scales, upon which are "certain prickles very sharp and strong, whereby he fastens himself to what fish he pleaseth; and these prickly scales he hath on most parts of his body."* Ferdinand Columbus also, as we have seen, describes the reverse as armed with backwardly pointing spines, which of course suggests Diodon. And it is Diodon that we find figured alongside of the Remora in sixteenth to eighteenth century ichthyological writings as if it were a second variety or "species" of the so-called "Reversus." Its curious antics on being hooked were first described by Pere Du Tertre in 1657.*

One may inquire whence the name Reversus was derived; and the answer would seem to be that it is cognate in meaning with the classic name of the fish Remora, or Echeneis, which signifies "holding back."* That the Remora, or "ship-holder," actually impeded the progress of sailing vessels is an extremely ancient legend, which has survived to modern times.* The subject is illustrated in Greek and Roman ceramic art, and occurs repeatedly in classic as well as medieval literature. In the accompanying figure we have reproduced one of the earliest wood-cuts in printed books depicting the Remora in the act of retarding a vessel; it is from the 1536 edition of the "Hortus Sanitatis." The illustration here given does not differ materially from that found in the ediiio princeps of this curious work, printed in 1479. The fishing scenes contained in the first editions respectively of the "Hortus Sani- tatis" and "Dialouges of Ceatures Moralyzed" are probably the first of their kind to be introduced into printed books. Copies are also shown of Gesner's (1558) and Aldrovandi's (1638) representations of

^This sentence is taken from "Purchas his Pilgrimes" III., p. 994.

«"Hist. Antilles," II., p. 209.

« The Cuban naturalist Felipe Poey suggests that the name Reverso was applied by the Spaniards to the fish "parce que l'animal parait touné au rebours, quand il se fixe." {"Hist. Nat. de Cuba," II., p. 249). Peter Martyr offers a like explanation.

7 See Dr. Günther's article on the Remora, in ''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.'' for 1860, Ser. 3, Vol. 5, p. 386.