Florida Fish and Fishing 



eight feet across the pectoral fins — I have 

 seen them of twenty. Following the lead 

 of Victor Hugo, the octopus is often called 

 " devil-fish," but the name rightly belongs 

 to this fish, the largest of the rays {Manta 

 hirostris) . 



The floundering and struggling of one Strenuous 

 of these aquatic giants, in shallow water, ^^ ^^^ 

 was something to be remembered, while 

 the erratic pitching and lunging of the dory 

 as it followed the lead of the finny motor 

 was, to say the least, exciting. These large 

 fishes were towed ashore, killed outright 

 and dissected, in order to ascertain some- 

 thing in relation to their diet and time of 

 spawning. 



One day we saw a porpoise in very shal- Porpoise 



, -^ , . . , , 1 Calves 



low water playmg with her two calves, 

 which were about three feet long. The 

 water scarcely covered them. Being some- 

 what curious as to the result, I took the 

 rifle and sent a bullet ricocheting across the 

 water just behind her. In great alarm she 

 gathered a calf under each flipper, and the 

 way she made the water fly with her fluked 



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