172 EDIBLE BRITISH MCLLUSKS. 



interesting account of the Squid fishery , off Nisi-Bama, 

 in the Old Islands. On nearing the anchorage, on the 

 19th November, 1859, they were struck by the number 

 of lights on the water, moving in all directions, and on 

 inquiry they found that they were from fishing-boats 

 on the look-out for Ika-surame, or squids. The lights 

 were produced by kindling " birch-bark in small kinds 

 of gratings, with long wooden handles, — machines known 

 among seafaring men by the name of devils. The flame 

 of the fires is very clear and vivid ; and the devils, 

 being held over the sides of the boats, attract the 

 squids." They were a species of Ommastrephes, usually 

 called by the fishermen the flying-squids, or sea-arrows, 

 as they swim very rapidly over the surface of the water, 

 in immense shoals. They were taken " by jigging." 

 The "jig" is of iron, and consists of a long shank, sur- 

 mounted by a circlet of small recurved hooks. These 

 cuttles are favourite articles of food, both with Japanese 

 and Chinese, and are carefully dried for the market, and 

 sold in great quantities. Near Hakodadi, there is, we 

 are told by Mr. Adams, a small fishing village exclu- 

 sively devoted to the catching and curing of the squid; 

 and many hundreds of thousands may be seen daily 

 drying in the open air, all nicely cleaned ; each kept flat 

 by means of little bamboo stretchers, and suspended in 

 regular rows on lines, which are raised on poles about 

 six feet from the ground. The open spaces, and all the 

 houses in the village, are filled with these squid-laden 

 lines. Squids everywhere form a novel kind of screen. 

 Pliny speaks of the springing loligo, and Trebius 

 Niger remarks that whenever it is seen darting above 

 the surface of the water, it portends a change ; and 

 also that they sometimes dart above the surface in such 



