. Crusoe's Island; a bird-hunter's story . ly go a-fishing on their own account. This fish, which is put to so strange a use, is calledthe remora, and is supposed to be the same that stoppedthe vessels of the ancients by attaching itself to theirbottoms, like a barnacle. This it does, at any rate, bymeans of the powerful sucking-disk on the top of itshead ; and not only to vessels, but to other fish, as wehave seen. It will not let go its hold, unless exposedto the air, no matter how hard one may pull at itstail, and this adhesive quality has been utilized by thefishermen in these islands, eve
. Crusoe's Island; a bird-hunter's story . ly go a-fishing on their own account. This fish, which is put to so strange a use, is calledthe remora, and is supposed to be the same that stoppedthe vessels of the ancients by attaching itself to theirbottoms, like a barnacle. This it does, at any rate, bymeans of the powerful sucking-disk on the top of itshead ; and not only to vessels, but to other fish, as wehave seen. It will not let go its hold, unless exposedto the air, no matter how hard one may pull at itstail, and this adhesive quality has been utilized by thefishermen in these islands, ever since the time Colum-bus came here. That navigator makes mention of it, 230 CRUSOES ISLAND. and his son wrote that he saw the Indians of Cubacatch large turtles with the remora. Sir WalterKaleigh also describes this manner of fishing mostquaintly, as he saw it practiced in these very waters: Now shall you heare, he says, a newe kind offishing. Like as we with grayhounds do hunt thehares, so do they, the Indians, as it were, with a hunt-. Kemoras and shark. ing fish take other fishes. This fish was of a shapelike unto a great eel, and had hanging on the hinderpart of its head a very tough skin, like unto a greatbag or purse. This fish is tied at the side of a boatby a cord, let down so far into the water that itmay reach the keel of the same, close to which itlieth until it espieth any great fish or tortoise, when itmaketh for it as swiftly as an arrow, and so graspethits pray with that purse of skin that no mans strength AFTER THE HURRICANE. 231 is sufficient to unloose the same, except by little andlittle, he drawing the line, it be lifted above the brimof the water, where it immediately letteth go itshold. I dont know how many fish we might have caught,but as it was I had the pleasure of gloating over twosharks, three barracoutas, four Jew and angel fishes,and several brilliantly-colored parrot fish, after wereached the shore, besides a turtle of goodly size. While Thomas N
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcrusoesi, booksubjectbirds
