DEYIL FISHING. 103 



hold of the shark line. Whether he grasped the 

 line between his feelers, or accidentally struck the 

 hook into his body, cannot accurately be known ; 

 but he darted off with the line, dragging the boat 

 from her anchorage, and moved seaward with such 

 fearful velocity, that the fishermen threw themselves 

 flat on their faces, and gave themselves up for lost. 

 " After lying a long time in this posture," said the 

 old man, " in expectation of death, I gained a little 

 heart, and stealing a look over the gunwale, saw 

 iron swim there was the anchor playing duck and 

 drake on the top of the water, while the boat was 

 going stern -foremost for the sea ! At last," said he, 

 " we cut loose when he had almost got us out to 

 sea." The earnestness of the old man, and the look 

 of undissembled terror which he wore in telling the 

 story, convince me that he spoke the truth. 



I have but one observation more to make on the 

 description of De Kay. "Color Blue-black 

 above ; dusky, varied with large white opaque 

 clouds, "beneath" It would be more correct to say, 

 "white, varied with large dusky opaque clouds 

 beneath" for, in every case, the white has predomi- 

 nated, and in a few cases there were no dusky spots 

 at all ! 



It will be seen, from the foregoing description, 

 that, unlike the porpoise or the whale, the devil- 



