444 Dr. Bancroft on the Sea-Devil of Jamaica. 



tion was taken, fifteen feet; greatest circumference nine feet. Was 

 caught by fishermen in Table Bay during the month of April, 1828, and 

 the skin was purchased for £6. sterling, and forwarded to the Paris 

 Museum. 



Art. LV. On the Fish known in Jamaica as the Sea-Devil, 

 ^?/ E. N. Bancroft, M.D., Corresponding Member of 

 the Zoological Society^ 5^c. 



On Thursday, the 8th of May, 1828, a fish of extraordinary dimen- 

 sions, which occasionally visits the mouth of this harbour (Kingston), and 

 is called Sea-Devil by the fishermen, was caught by Major General Sir 

 John Keane, Lieutenant Governor, assisted by Lieutenant St. John, of the 

 Royal Artillery, Mr. Read, Ordnance store-keeper, and some other ad- 

 venturous officers. It was struck with the first harpoon at about eight 

 o'clock A.M., and was not overpowered and killed till four P.M., whe nit 

 was hauled up on the Ordnance Wharf in this city. Its resistance had 

 been considerable, and its strength was sufficient to drag, from time to 

 time, three or four boats fastened one to another, at the rate of four miles 

 per hour. The Lieutenant Governor was pleased to present the fish to 

 the Jamaica Society; and as I then had reason to believe that it had never 

 been described with sufficient accuracy to enable naturalists to ascertain 

 its true characters, I gladly availed myself of the opportunity thus kindly 

 offered, and very rarely met with, to take such notes of its structure, 

 organs, &c. as will, I hope, suffice to remove the existing doubts con- 

 cernins: its classification. From these the statement now submitted to the 

 Society has been prepared. To show how much obscurity has existed 

 (and probably still exists) in regard to certain species, or individuals, of 

 the Ray family that have been met with of an enormous size, and more 

 particularly in regard to those which some ichthyologists have named 

 Raia Gioma, Raia Mobular, Raia Fabroniana, Raia Banksiana, and Raia 

 Manatia, I may mention that Cuvier (whose authority ought justly to be 



* The Jamaica Society for the encouragement of Agriculture and of other 

 arts and sciences, before whom this paper was originally read. 



