Old Fourlegs

In 1938 a South African trawler caught a very peculiar creature. Astounded by its appearance, Professor J. L. B. Smith decided it must be a coelacanth*, a type of prehistoric fish known only from fossils and believed to have become extinct at least 50 million years ago.To find more specimens became his life-task. He searched the ocean off Eastern Africa. He distributed thousands of leaflets offering a reward. For 14 years he sought in vain.Suddenly came a telegram: a coelacanth had been caught off a tiny island far from the mainland. Professor Smith was frantic. Transport must be got before the fish decayed in the tropical heat. How he browbeat South Africa's Prime Minister into authorising the despatch of a military plane makes the climax to a highly dramatic story.*pronounce seel-a-canth