l66 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 52 



California" and noticed that "each of these appendages may be 

 curved on itself like an elephant's trunk, and can firmly grasp ob- 

 jects within reach." According to Elliott/ "It is the habit of this 

 fish to ply these arms rapidly before its mouth while it swims, and to 

 clasp with the utmost closeness and obstinacy whatever body it has 

 once inclosed. In this way, the boats of fishermen have often been 

 dragged from their moorings and overset by the Devil-fish having 

 laid hold of the grapnel." 



That these "arms" are muscular and powerful has been demon- 

 strated on many occasions. The natural movement of the head-fins 

 or caropteres is inward, and wdien any object strikes between them it 

 is instinctively held, a proceeding which explains the undoubted fact 

 that these fishes can run away with quite large vessels. Many such 

 cases of towing vessels have been recorded. 



One of the characteristics for which the Devil-fishes are celebrated 

 is the capture of vessels and carrying them off far from their moor- 

 ings. In one of the earliest notices of the Devil-fish, by John Law- 

 son in "The History of Carolina" (1714), this peculiarity is de- 

 scribed. "The Devil-fish," he says, "has been known to weigh a 

 ship's anchor, and run with the vessel a league or two, and bring 

 her back, against tide, to almost the same place." Later notices do 

 not give the animal credit for the same accommodating treatment! 

 A number of accounts, however, corroborate the tendency indicated. 

 William Elliott noticed several instances, and, in later times. Holder 

 (p. 18) records that "at least instances of this were heard of on the 

 reef occurring from Tampa Bay to Garden Key." He adds : "In 

 every case the vessels, always at anchor, suddenly moved oft' in a 

 mysterious manner and were towed greater or less distances. The 

 Ray had collided with the chain, and, true to its instincts, threw its 

 two tentacular feelers or claspers around it and rushed ahead, thus 

 lifting the anchor." 



In accordance, too, with this proclivity to seize upon objects which 

 bar their progress, Devil-fishes have been charged with damage and 

 destruction to wharves which extend into the water. "It was in 

 obeying this peculiarity of their nature that a shoal of these fish, as 

 they swept by in front of 'Elliott's' grandfather's residence, would 

 sometimes, at floodtide, approach so near to the shore as to come in 

 contact with the water fence, the firm posts of which they would 

 clasp and struggle to uptear, till they lashed the water into a foam 

 with their powerful wings.'"- Any such action, however, would be 

 entirely exceptional and the statement requires authentication. 



' Op. cit., p. 16. 

 ■ Op. cil., p. if). 



