Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/44

 38 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

In order that the rrader may judge of the Bimilarity of the accounts of African and West Indian pahing with the Remora, we present at this point an English rendering of Commerson's observatious. The original i8 found in Lac^pede's treatiee on Fishes.

The Indian Bemora, Echeneit naocrales, is verj eommoE about the coasts of Mozambique, nbere it is Eometimet made use of for the following yerj lingnlaT msnuer of catching turtles. A ring is fssiened round the tail of the flab, in ■neh a niannsr as to prevent its escape, and a long <^ord fastened to the ring. 'When thus prepared, the fish is carried in a Tessel of sea-water, and when the boatmen observe a turtle sleeping, as is the frequent habit of those animals, on the snr- faee of the water, the; approach aa near as possible without disturbing it; and then throiring the Bemora into the ^ea, and giving it the proper length of cord, it soon attaches itself to the under side of the sleeping turtle, which ia thus eaeilj drawn to the boat b; the fiAermen.n

The distinguished ichthjologist, Dr. Albert Giinther, in referring to the accounts of Commerson and others, expresses doubt as to their genuineness, and states that they appear to have originated rather from an experiment than from regular practise. Dr. D. S. Jordan, also, doubts whether the large Eckeneis tiaucrates, which he has studied in Cuba, was ever practically used in the manner described. We are per- mitted to quote the views of this authority as communicated in a per- sonal letter. This reads in part :

��"General Zoology," 1808, 11., p. 20B.

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