The numerous reptiles, easily caught in every part of the country, supplied food during the summer season. Besides the smaller lizards, there is the large iguana (Hydrosaurus varius)—Bathalook (Gippsland)—which furnishes a quantity of excellent flesh; and, of the larger snakes, there are the death-
in the small pools in a coral reef, care being taken not to injure them. They were laid in the bottom of a canoe, and covered over with wet sea-weed, a strong fishing-line having been previously fastened to the tail of each. Four men went in the canoe—one steering with a paddle in the stern, one paddling on either side, and one in the fore part looking out for the turtle and attending to the fishing-lines, while I sat on a sort of stage fixed amidships, supported by the outrigger poles. The day was very calm and warm, and the canoe was allowed to drift with the current, which runs very strong on these shores. A small turtle was seen, and the sucking-fish was put into the water. At first it swam lazily about, apparently recovering the strength which it had lost by removal from its native element; but presently it swam slowly in the direction of the turtle, till out of sight. In a very short time the line was rapidly carried out, there was a jerk, and the turtle was fast. The line was handled gently for two or three minutes, the steersman causing the canoe to follow the course of the turtle with great dexterity. It was soon exhausted and hauled up to the canoe. It was a small turtle, weighing a little under 40 lbs.; but the sucking-fish adhered so tenaciously to it as to raise it from the ground when held up by the tail; and this some time after being taken out of the water. I have seen turtle weighing more than 100 lbs. which had been taken in the manner described. Though large numbers of the hawk's-bill turtle are taken by the Cape York natives, it is very difficult to procure the shell from them; they are either too lazy to save it, or, if they do so, it is bartered to the islanders of Torres Straits, who use it for making masks and other ornaments." —Description of the Neighbourhood of Somerset, by John Jardine, Esq., Police Magistrate, Somerset, Cape York, 1866.
"Turtle forms an important article of food, and four different kinds are distinguished at Cape York and the Prince of Wales Islands. Three of these can be identified as the green, the hawk's-bill, and the loggerhead species, and the fourth is a small one which I never saw. This last, I was informed by Gi'om, is fished for in the following extraordinary manner:—A live sucking-fish (Echeneis remora), having previously been secured by a line passed round the tail, is thrown into the water in certain places known to be suitable for the purpose. The fish, while swimming about, makes fast by its sucker to any turtle of this small kind which it may chance to encounter, and both are hauled in together. . . . . One day some of us, while walking the poop, had our attention directed to a sucking-fish, about two and a half feet in length, which had been made fast by the tail to a billet of wood, by a fathom or so of spun yarm, and turned adrift. An immense striped shark, apparently about fourteen feet in length, which had been cruizing about the ship all the morning, sailed slowly up, and turning slightly on one side, attempted to seize the apparently helpless fish; but the sucker, with great dexterity, made himself fast in a moment to the shark's back. Off darted the monster at full speed, the sucker holding on fast as a limpet to a rock, and the billet towing astern. He then rolled over and over, tumbling about, when, wearied with his efforts, he lay quiet for a little. Seeing the float, the shark got it into his mouth, and disengaging the sucker by the tug on the line, made a bolt at the fish; but his puny antagonist was again too quick, and fixing himself close behind the dorsal fin, defied the efforts of the shark to disengage him, although he rolled over and over, lashing the water with his tail until it foamed all round. What the final result was we could not clearly make out."—Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, by John Macgillivray, 1852, vols. I. and II.
Dampier makes mention of a sucking-fish; and no doubt the fishling referred to by Pliny, in the opening chapter of his 32nd book, was of the nature of the creature above described.
The common Remora, Professor McCoy says in a note to me, is eight or ten inches long, and is occasionally found on sharks and other fish. He adds, in reference to the account given by Mr. Jardine:—"It seemed to me that the natives successfully catching turtle by use of the Echeneis remora of our seas was as mythical as the old classical fable referred to of these little sucking-fishes stopping ships in full sail; but, as Mr. Jardine has seen it, the matter is of course settled, although he omits to mention how the line is attached to the Remora so as not to impede its locomotion and yet stop that of a turtle. There is no doubt that the fish attaches itself to turtle, as well as sharks and other fish, so firmly that the body may be torn sooner than the sucker be detached."
