NO. 1816 STORY Q-e- THE DEVIL-flSH — GILL 1 79 



the liver, and passed nearly through to the back. The second had 

 passed from the back into his lungs or gills — so that the full power 

 of so large a fish was never fairly exerted against us. Had the same 

 fish been struck in the wings, or other parts not vital, his capture 

 would have been uncertain — and would at any rate have cost us the 

 work of many hours. 



"I suppose the shoal of Devil-fish was a large one; the third which 

 appeared we struck at — the fourth we harpooned — and as we were 

 rapidly drawing off from the shore, a fifth was seen. How many 

 were still behind, we had not leisui-e to observe; but conjecture this 

 was but the advance guard of the column." 



Later adventurers after sport with the Devil-fish have hunted it 

 along the Florida coast as well as in the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 Caribbean Sea. C. J. Holder has told of his experience in "Trailing 

 the Sea-bat" in "Outing" for 1900, and J. Turner-Turner has de- 

 voted two chapters of his book entitled "The Giant Fish of Florida" 

 (1902) to the "Enormous Rays, or Devil-fish," which he pursued. 

 The article by Holder has been republished i;i that author's work 

 entitled "Big Game at Sea," published in 1908 (pp. 1-35). 



The pursuit of such a giant as the Devil-fish is necessarily attended 

 with some danger, but this incident adds to the zest the sportsman 

 feels. Elliott records that he had been "carried twenty-five miles in 

 the course of a few hours by two of these fish (having struck a relay 

 when the first sea-horse escaped, and losing both), with three boats 

 in train." 



According to Leon Diguet^ (1898), in the Gulf of California, 

 where Devil-fishes are numerous, the pearl-fishers, when caught 

 during a calm away from mooring places, always take the precaution 

 of dropping two anchors at night for fear that one should be seized 

 by a Devil-fish and hauled afar by it. Diguet went in pursuit of a 

 specimen for the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris, and, after one 

 had been harpooned, it turned back on the boat, seized the bow with 

 its headfins, and held it in its clasp till it was lanced a second time. 

 But this clasping is largely automatic, and the Devil-fish only makes 

 for the boat from which it has been attacked when it experiences 

 the stress through the line from that direction. It is not like the 

 attack of some sharks when wounded. The Devil-fish, in fact, has 

 been called a "timid animal" by Diguet. 



The Devil-fish, nevertheless, is the object of considerable dread 

 among the fishermen of the Gulf of California; for, although not 

 aggressive, it is frequently encountered, and Diguet tells that numer- 



^Vaillant (L.) et L. Diguet. Snr le Cephaloptere du Golfe de Californie. 

 Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, 1898, pp. 127-128. 



