ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF A SEA DEVIL. 133 



surface of the water. The animal lay perfectly motionless, and we 

 made no doubt of easily drawing him on deck. One harpoon, how- 

 ever, being insufficient to support him, particularly as it had pene- 

 trated but a little way, twelve or fifteen more were struck into him 

 at once, so as to fix him completely ; several hawsers were passed 

 round his body, and he was thus hoisted on board. 



This was the least of the three, being only eight-and-twenty feet 

 in its extreme breadth, and one-and-twenty in length from the ex- 

 tremity of its horns to that of the tail. The tail, which was thick 

 in proportion to the body, was 22 inches long. 



The mouth, placed exactly like that of the ray, was wide enough 

 to swallow a man with ease. The skin was white under the belly, 

 and brown on the back, like that of the ray. 



We reckoned the animal to weigh not less, certainly, than a ton. 



About twenty small sucking fish were fastened to different parts 

 of his body so firmly, that they did not drop off when he was hoisted 

 on board, but were taken with him. 



Some naturalists have said, that the head of the sucking fish is 

 viscous on the lower part, and furnished with rough points, similar 

 to the teeth of a file ; and, according to them, it is by means of 

 these two qualities, its roughness and viscosity, that it is enabled to 

 adhere to other fish. 



" Figure to yourself," says one of them, " a row of nineteen sharp- 

 edged and dentated lamina?, placed cross-wise, and issuing immedi- 

 ately from the rim of the lower jaw, and you will have a just idea 

 of the part with which the remora makes itself fast." 



This description is exact as far as relates to the figure and num- 

 ber of the dentated laminae ; but it places them on the lower part 

 of the head, whereas they are, in reality, on the upper. Accord- 

 ingly, when the remora fixes itself, it is obliged to turn upon its 

 back, with its belly upward. 



I am ignorant whether the two white fish that post themselves 

 on the arms of the sea-devil, and appeared to serve him as pilots, 

 were also of the remora kind. But this at least I can assert, that 

 they appeared to stick firmly to the extremities of the arms I 

 have mentioned, notwithstanding the arms were in continual mo- 

 tion. I must observe, however, that if these white fish had a flat 

 surface, like that by which the remora adheres to other fish, it must 

 have been on the lower part of the body, and not on the upper, since 

 the animal continued in its natural position, and had no occasion to 

 turn over to fix itself at its post. 



