DEVIL FISHING. 15 



trout of two pounds weight, and other fish of that 

 calibre, I am tempted to give you an account of 

 the sport enjoyed by my grandfather; and which 

 bears the same relation to your lauded trout-fishing 

 as a Bengal tiger hunt to a match at snipes. 



There is a fish which annually visits the bay I 

 have described, from May till August, but in 

 smaller numbers than formerly. It is described by 

 Linnaeus as of the genus Ray, species dio-don. It 

 is called by Dr. Mitchell (not without reason, from 

 the bat-like structure of his flaps, or wings), " the 

 vampire of the ocean." It is known with us as 

 the u devil-fish." Its structure indicates great mus- 

 cular power; it has long, angular wings, a capa- 

 cious mouth but the greatest singularity of its 

 formation consists in its arms (or horns, as they are 

 called), which extend on each side of the mouth, 

 and serve as feeders. Its size, with us, is from 

 fourteen to twenty-five feet, measured across the 

 back transversely. Its longitudinal measurement 

 is less. Valliant describes this fish as reaching the 

 size of fifty feet, on the coast of Africa ; but "Val- 

 liant was a traveller ! I am a sportsman merely, 

 Mr. Editor, and claim no charter to exceed the 

 truth. I must own, then, that the largest I have 

 seen and measured was but eighteen feet across the 

 back, from three to four feet thick, as it lay on the 



