70 DEVIL FISHING. 



as often as six times. It happens, occasionally 

 that in making these somersets, the fish does not 

 rise quite to the surface, but is several feet below ; 

 so that his revolutions are detected by the appear- 

 ance "and disappearance of the white or under part 

 of his body, dimly seen through the turbid water 

 in which. he delights. Sometimes, indeed, he is 

 unseen ; but his presence is shown to the ob- 

 servant sportsman by the boiling of the water 

 from below, as from a great caldron. With no 

 better guide than this, the harpoon has been darted 

 down, and reached him when twelve feet below the 

 surface. 



What purpose the fish effects by these strange 

 motions, I leave to naturalists to determine. Per- 

 haps, while in this supine posture, he rejects the 

 water from his complicated strainers and retains 

 the small fish to be swallowed, for I have remarked 

 the gills alternately expanded and collapsed, while 

 he executed the manoeuvre. But this is mere con- 

 jecture, and I may come nearer to the mark in 

 another suggestion, which I intend to offer in a 

 subsequent chapter. 



When one of these fish is struck, he commonly 

 darts off with great rapidity, running out the forty 

 fathoms of rope, and then dragging along the boat 

 with quite as much speed as is agreeable. If several 



