DEVIL FISHING. 13 



But, do you know, gentle reader, what a devil- 

 fish is? Perhaps you never saw one, even in a 

 museum! Imagine, .then, a monster measuring 

 from sixteen to twenty feet across the back, full 

 three feet in depth, having powerful yet flexible 

 flaps or wings, with which he drives himself 

 furiously through the water, or vaults high into air : 

 his feelers (commonly called horns) projecting seve- 

 ral feet beyond his mouth, and paddling all the 

 small fry, that constitute his food, into that enor- 

 mous receiver and you have an idea, an imperfect 

 one, of this curious fish, which annually, during 

 the summer months, frequents our southern sea- 

 coast. 



It is quite possible that, in the course of my 

 sporting excursions, I have been brought more in 

 contact with the devil-fish than any man living ; 

 and I trust, therefore, that I may escape the charge 

 ' of presumption, in pretending to interest you with 

 what I have remarked as peculiar in the habits of 

 this fish, as well as with the method which I have 

 successfully adopted in his capture. But, before 

 we proceed thus far, I Will ask your perusal of an 

 essay, which, though it sometimes substitutes the 

 conjectural for the positive, may nevertheless serve 

 as an introduction to the less spirited, but more 



authentic sketches which are to follow. 

 1-2 



