368 NATURAL HISTOrV IN ANECDOTE. 



socket. The man, of course, expired in a very few minutes. 

 Accidents were often happening, and always fatal, and yet the 

 negroes, who seldom think beyond the present moment, could 

 not be dissuaded from bathing. A man walking in the sea, 

 up to his knees, was dragged away by one, almost before my 

 eyes." 



The Bays. The Rays are large fiat fish of which there are 

 numerous species, the Thornback and the Common Skate 

 being the best known. They have large pectoral fins, and 

 some species grow to an enormous size. The Skate has been 

 known to measure six or seven feet. Other species are the 

 Homelyn Ray and the Sandy Ray, which like the Thornback 

 and the Skate are found in British waters. The Sting Ray 

 and the Eagle Ray cover wider areas and grow to a gigantic 

 size in tropic seas. It is a large species of the Eagle Ray that 

 is known as the Sea Devil of the tropics. These fish, though 

 very large, display no great antipathy to man, though from 

 their enormous size and strength they are a source of danger 

 to small craft. Mr. Swinburne Ward in a letter to Colonel 

 Playfair, quoted in Dr. Percival Wright's concise " Natural 

 History," thus describes the capture of one of these monsters 

 off the Seychelles. 



" Coming home we passed close to an enormous ' diabla 

 de-mer ' floating quietly about. We changed from the pirogue 

 to the whale-boat, which I had scientifically fitted up for the 

 gros poissons, and went alongside of him, driving a regular 

 whale harpoon right through his body. The way he towed 

 the water was beautiful, but we would not give him an inch of 

 line and he also had to succumb to a rather protracted lancing. 

 His size will give you an idea of his strength in the water — ■ 

 forty-two feet in circumference ! We got him a wash on the 

 beach, but the united strength of ten men could not get him 

 an inch further, so we were obliged to leave him there. By 

 this time the sharks will not have left much of him ; they 

 have not had such a meal as that for a long time. The fisher- 



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