NO. 1816 STORY OF THE DEVIL-FISH — GILL 177 



hundred transverse rows; the rows are separated from each other 

 by well-marked interspaces. It is said to attain a width of 30 feet.' 



This or a very closely related species has been found not only :n 

 the West Indian and Carolinian seas, but along the west coast of 

 America, along the African coast, and in the Indian Ocean. A 

 Devil-fish fourteen feet six inches wide, caught near Durban, Natal, 

 also presented the same proportions as the American species. A 

 plate representing it from before and behind was published in the 

 Zoologist for April, 1899. 



Like most other large Selachians, the Devil-fish is beset by Echen- 

 eidids, commonly known as Sucking-fish or Suckers and often 

 confounded with the Pilot-fish. Elliott- noted that "he is attended 

 by a band of parasites," which "followed him into shoal water" and 

 "adhered so closely after he was aground that several suffered them- 

 selves to be taken by the hand."^ 



IX 



The Devil-fish from time to time has been the object of sport. He 

 who indulged most in it and captured almost twenty has given 

 animated pictures of some of his adventures. One of the most con- 

 densed and entertaining accounts may be welcome here. 



One day in late June (24th), sailing toward "Hilton Head" 

 (South Carolina), Mr. Elliott with his crew went after Devil-fish. 

 Soon he saw "a shoal" of them "sweeping along the beach, traveling 

 rapidly downward with the tide" and freely showing themselves at 

 the surface. After an inefifectual cast with a harpoon, "three showed 

 themselves below and one above." 



'The records of size are very defective. The largest actually measured by 

 Elliott was 17 feet wide (p. 64), another 16 feet (p. 80), and another 15 feet 

 (p. 43). Another lost after being dragged "into three feet water" was esti- 

 mated to be larger; "there he lay, extending twenty feet by the wings" (p. 

 51). One taken in the Gulf of California in 1846 was 19 feet wide, 3 feet 6 

 inches thick, and had a mouth 3 feet 5 inches wide (Z06I., 1849, p. 2358). 

 Another noticed by Gosse (The Ocean, p. 193-194, Amer. Edit., p. 189) taken 

 at La Guayra, was 20 feet wide, with a "length from end of tail to end of 

 tusks [caropteres] 18 feet," a "mouth 4 feet wide," and "its weight 3.502 

 pounds." 



* Op. cit., p. 44. 



^Le Vaillant, near the African coast, met three Devil-fishes ("diable"), one 

 of which was accompanied by a sucking-fish ("pilote du diable") attached to 

 each horn ("corne") of the Devil-fish. His account is unreliable. The para- 

 site is the Remora remora according to Street (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 7, p. 54), 

 and Pellegrin (Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat, Paris, vii, 327). 



