In the second division of this family we find several curious specimens
before coming to the better known flat Fish which are used for food. The
first of these is the Sea-snail, which has a long mucuous body without
scales and front fins forming suckers, whereby it can attach itself to
the rocks. A curious Lump-fish is also classified here which is very
different from the Lump-fish of the Ray family. It has little to
distinguish it, except that this also has a strong sucker formed by the
disc of the ventral fins. And a third queer specimen is the Echineis—an
inhabitant of the Mediterranean, which has a flat disk covering its
head, which is formed of a number of movable plates of cartilage. Aided
by this queer organ it attaches itself firmly to rocks, and even to
ships and larger Fishes which it meets with in its wanderings. Its
adhesion to these objects is so strong that the strength of a man often
fails to separate them. It sometimes attaches itself to a Shark by means
of this strange disk, and makes long voyages on this monstrous
locomotive Fish, without fatigue or danger; for its enemies are kept a
distance by fear of the fierce monster which carries it.