THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



Texas, about one hundred miles south of Galveston, an eagle ray 

 of large size jumped near us, went four or five feet into the air 

 and nearly landed in the boat. At Tortugas I once jerked a 

 large moray into my boat, and in a tew moments it had, accident- 

 ally or otherwise, chased me overboard. I think if this eagle 

 of the sea had landed in the boat I should have taken to the water 

 without discussion. 



In California there are several rays which make a good fight 

 when hooked. One resembles the eagle ray, but is black, with a 

 white under surface and a lash-like tail which is elevated at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees when the ray is resting on the bottom. 

 I have played individuals which weighed forty or fifty pounds, 

 and concede them to be hard fighters, easily tiring out a tyro 

 with a rod or hand-hue. The objection to them aU is, they are 

 useless, not edible. 



The king of the ray tribe is the great Manta birostris, the 

 devil-fish, or sea-devil, fairly common in Florida and the Gulf 

 and on the Pacific side up to Santa OataUna, where one specimen 

 has been seen. Taking a manta is like shooting an elephant or 

 a rhinoceros. It is fishing of the most strenuous kind, and can 

 be compared only to whaling, as the fish is taken with the grains 

 or larger harpoon. So many stories are told regarding the terrible 

 nature of this fish that it is difficult to separate truth from fiction ; 

 but it can be said that it is merely a giant ray, often twenty, 

 and doubtless thirty feet across, weighing possibly a ton in large 

 individuals. It is a harmless creature when left undisturbed, 

 and even when attacked is dangerous only in that it can tow ten 

 or twenty boats out to sea unless killed, and a blow of its extra- 

 ordinary ' wings ' is sufficient to kill a man and crush a small boat. 

 Its very size and clumsiness make it dangerous. I can conceive 

 of nothing more interesting than to see this wonderful fish swim- 

 ming, the personification of grace. It is shaped very much like 

 the eagle ray, the tail being shorter and stouter. The really 

 extraordinary features are the two fin-Uke claspers at the mouth 

 which, doubtless, are used to wave food into it. 

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