Just what to make of this the present writer does not know. The whole matter depends on the strength of the sense of smell in fishes. This, in sharks at any rate, is quite acute. By pouring blood or by hanging overboard a carcass (the more decomposed the better) sharks may be readily enticed up current or up tide. This the present writer has done (1912). The odor from the negro is very offensive to the white man, and I have been told that to the Chinaman the odor of the white man is just as distasteful. As Labat says at the close of his diseourse, each must be left free to make up his own mind as to the value of this conjecture.
Catesby's remarks (1754) on the danger to bathers of this fish are brief but to the point. "It is a swift-swimming and very voracious fish, preying on most others; and some of the largest size have fre quently attacked and devoured men as they were washing in the sea." While Brown (1756), without specifically saying so, indicates his knowledge of similar habits on the part of the Jamaican fish.
Bullen (1904) quotes the apocryphal stories current throughout the West Indies as to the diabolical ferocity of the barracuda and ends by giving an eye-witness account of the fear of this fish which is uni versal throughout these islands. A pair of can-hooks had been lost overboard in 40 feet of water, and for a small reward a band of 8 negroes, swimming about the vessel and paying no attention to some sharks in the near vicinity, endeavored to recover these. All went well until the cry of "couter," "couter," was raised, whereupon bed lam broke loose. Crazed with fear, the negroes fairly climbed over each other to come aboard by the help of ropes flung out to them. Bullet' adds that even when safe on the ship "their demoralized, panic-stricken condition was painful to witness." If the reader will, in this connection, examine Bullen's well-drawn figures of the barra cuda (reproduced herein opposite page 55) and the other figures given in this paper of the head and jaws, and will recall the cold ferocity of this fish, he can better understand the truth of this story.
Holder (1908) had in his employ many years ago as guide and fac totum on the outer Florida Reef a typical reefer who went by the common name "Barracuda." Because he was an expert at taking this fish with the grains, Holder thought that he had been so named, but inquiries showed a totally different origin. It seems that years before this man had lived on Sea Horse Key in the Bahamas and bad there got his name because of a horrible experience he had had with the barracuda fish. On the occasion of a great storm, a small ship was driven on the reef and all on board washed overboard and drowned save one woman who was lashed to the rigging. This man, McNally by name, threw off his clothes, tied a light line around his waist, and despite the dissuasions of his friends began his hard swim to the vessel. Several times on his journey he was seen to strike at something, and on his return (having sent the women in tied to the line), he was seen to fight with something and once was pulled under. His friends thought that he had encountered a shark, but when he came to shore it was found that both going and coming he had been attacked and seriously bitten by the fish whose name he afterward bore.
Further, Holder was told of a number of men who had gone over board in channels between the Keys and who had been almost killed by these vicious fish. He also relates an incident, which seemingly
fell under his own observation, of a barracuda which had been for gotten in the well of a fishing sloop. When a man went down into the well to repair it he was attacked by the fish and maimed for life.
Finally, as bearing out the present writer's statements at the begin ning of this section, Henderson (1916) may be quoted that: "As to the picona danger, not much can be said beyond mentioning the general fear of this aggressive fish. . . . He prefers rocky places about the reefs, where, lying motionless near the bottom, he darts at his prey with a swiftness that baffles the eye. His sinister appearance, astonishing quickness, and occasional habit of ranging the water in schools, like squadrons of sub marine destroyers, have combined to give him a bad name. . . . As a matter of fact we feared these [barracudas] more than sharks." Captain Wilson writes of the Bahama barracuda : "I know of a case of a man who was walking quickly on a shallow reef beside deep water, and a barracuda flashed up and hit him on the foot. In this case, the cause, I think, was his white foot going in and out of the water quickly, for anything that moves quickly they will flash at. They give a ghastly bite." Thus we have abundant evidence of the ferocity of S. barracuda in Gulf-Caribbean waters and of its dangers to man. Turning to the Pacific, it is interesting to note that the California form, S. argentea, which attains a length of 5 feet, is entirely harmless. In the southern part of this great ocean, however, is found the formidable S. commer sonii, which has been known to reach the great size of 8 feet. On the authority of Andrew Garrett, Gunther states that such large individuals are extremely dangerous to bathers. Much more circum stantial, however, is the following interesting present-day account from Wood-Jones (1912). In this connection see his figure of such a giant fish reproduced herein as figure 2, plate i. He writes: "The barracouta has, however, left its mark upon at least one man, and I have seen a Cocos [Keeling Archipelago] native the whole of whose calf muscles had been torn away by the cruel teeth of this large [marine fish] relative of the pike. The barracouta is an ugly and dangerous fish, for it is of all sea creatures the most difficult to see, and it has a habit of dashing upon whatever stirs in the water." In his very interesting book, describing the cruise of the Curacoa among the South Sea Islands in 1865, Brenchley figures and describes the tie-beam of a house at Uji, Solomon Islands. On one side of this beam is carved and painted a scene showing an overturned canoe with the men fighting with sharks and other fishes which are devouring some of them. Concerning this scene Brenchley says: "Among the fish regaling themselves on the remains of the bodies which they have par tially devoured are to be found more than one species. The long cen tral fish is the Sphyriena, popularly known as the Barracuda." This tie-beam was brought away by the Curacoa and figures of its two sides form the frontispiece of Brenchley's book. The figure of the barracuda, with a piece of human flesh in its jaws, is admirably drawn and per fectly recognizable.