Dr. Bancroft on the Sea- Devil of Jamaicn. 455 



When the fish was placed before us, it was natural that we should en- 

 deavour to satisfy ourselves as to the degree of credit which the accounts 

 above quoted of the mode in which it destroyed the divers might justly be 

 entitled to. It is here proper to state that every one of the Spanish gen- 

 tlemen just alluded to, gave a similar account; but each of them con- 

 fessed that he had never known of such an event, and it was obvious that 

 they all spoke from tradition. 



That the pectoral fins of a Manta can enfold a man in the mode that 

 has been supposed, seems, nevertheless, upon examination, quite im- 

 possible from their structure and position ; they are too thick at their 

 base and along a great part of their anterior margin, and their cartilages 

 are too stiff to bend in that way; neither would the manner of their 

 articulation with the strong and rigid arch of the skeleton on each side of 

 the body admit of any considerable approximation between their tips. 

 There is besides the whole breadth of the body, measuring five feet in 

 our subject, which must be kept immoveably extended by the arch both 

 of the sternum and also of the skeleton as just explained, and which, 

 even if the ends of the fins could be brought to meet, would still afford 

 ample space to secure a man from being compressed in the way pretended : 

 to say nqthing of the suspension of the fish's locomotive power so long 

 as his fins are thus kept together. 



For these reasons, if the Manta has ever in reality killed any divers, 

 it seems much more likely to have been effected by seizing and ingulph- 

 ing them within its huge mouth, than by squeezing them between its fins. 

 But, if we advert on the other hand to its total privation of teeth, the 

 number of which has been thought, even by naturalists, to be generally 

 proportioned to the voi acious and destructive natures of fishes, to its very 

 narrow oesophagus, and to what has been observed of its habits, which 

 are as opposite as possible to those of the Shark, (for it has never been 

 seen in this harbour to feed on carcases, but only on what the fishermen 

 call small fry,) it appears very improbable that the fish would either seek 

 to devour men, or even to snap at and catch them with its mouth. And 

 under these circumstances it seems more rational to attribute the deaths of 

 divers, that doubtless have happened on the Pearl Fishery Bank, to the 

 notorious voracity of Sharks, which in general abound there, rather than 

 to the hostility of the Manta. 



