Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/45

 TBE REVERSUS

��Fia. 4. TBE filUOKl, OB EELrLIU TAHIETT OF THE KeTERSUB. FTOUI AldrOTMldIa* "I>« PlBclbUB," IftZS.

The minute the alutrk to nhlcli E. wmcrale* has fastened itMlf ia drawn out of the nater, it Iookhh its hold, and seta out of the <trj in a hurr;. I do not think it could le trusted to fetch in a turtle, or any other large flsh; and I never knew it to cling to any Buiall flab. The amaller sneking-flah, Bemora remora, clings tight. I have drawn up big sharks in the mid-Paciflc with the Bemora attached, and it wouldn't let go. Dr. Gilbert tellB me that in Japan he has taken them ofF from sharks and kept them in the aqnariam. Tbe7 clung tight to the glass, not leaving it to sirallow small fish until these came very close. But Bemora, rarelj exceeding 16 inches in length, could never be u»^ed in lishing and the big Ech«nei» doesn't "sit tight." The name "Reversus" scemB to me to come from the fact that these fish, having bla«k bellies, ieem to be wrong-side up. Often when attached to other Gih they are in that position.

On the other hand, some modern instances of fishing with the Remora have been reported, aa for instance, the account published by Mr. Holm- wood, a British consul in Madagascar, published in the Proceedings of Ihe London Zoological Society for 1884, page 411. Dr. E. W. Gudger, who has been studying the Remora, has collected a number of apparently trustworthy observations; and Br. Townsend, director of the New York Aquarium, has made practical tests of the adhesive power of these fiahes. Br. Townsend writes:

We used to catch a good many while I was cruising with the Alhatrott. When these fishes were thrown into tubes or buckets of ^a water the/ took hold tt once with their sucking discs and could not be detached without using consid- erable force. I have tied a rtoot cord around the tail of a tno-foot Remora which attached itself to the inside of a two-gallon galvanized pail half -filled with water, and was then able to lift the pail, fish and water without the fish's grip giring way an inch. The pail and water weighed twentj-one pounds. The larg- wt Bemora in the aquarium is thirty-two inches long, and its cephalic di?c is Feven inches long and three inches wide. I have no doutit that with this fish attached to a good-sized sea turtle jou conld hand in the latter without difficultj.

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