SHARK* AXD SKATES. 303 



to be described later in this volume, and Le Vaillant records the old | utterly 

 false) opinion of the sailors that these served to direct the movements 

 the monster. 



The sea-devils, like the great majority of the rays, bring forth their 

 vount»; alive — one being said to be the usual number at a birth. The 

 young accompany the mothers for a time, and during this period the old 

 ones are especially dangerous. The young are of considerable size when 

 they come into this world. One cut from the mother is now in the British 

 Museum. It had a weight of twenty pounds, and was five feel wide The 

 mother was fifteen feet wide, and between three and four feel in thickn 



As has just been said, most of the rays give birth to living young, but 

 those which lay eggs have very curious egg-capsules. They are quadran- 

 gular in outline, each corner being prolonged into a long tendril which is 

 coiled around the stems of sea-weeds or corals. When the time con 

 for the young to hatch, one end of the capsule splits open and allows the 



ape of the ray. These skates' eggs are very common cast upon the 

 beach all along the shore, and they have received the common names I 

 ' sea-purses' and -sailor-purses.' In England they are called c sk 



rrows ' — an admission of their origin, and a comparison with the hand- 

 barrows which the fishermen use in carrying their fish to and from the 



drying-racks. 



