THE RAYS. 369 



men say that when alive the sharks do not molest the ' diable- 

 de-mer, ' whose offensive weapons consist of those enormous 

 flexible sides (one can hardly call them fins) with which they 

 can beat almost any shark to death. As a rule when har- 

 pooned, they endeavour, like other rays, to buiy themselves 

 in the sand, and if they succeed in doing this, no line can ever 

 haul them out of it — their flat bodies act on the principle of 

 an enormous sucker. Another curious fact about them is that 

 when harpooned they swim sideways, edge on, in order to 

 avoid exposing too broad a surface to their enemy. They 

 never do this unless harpooned. ' ' 



Bay Catching. Lieutenant Lamont gave the following graphic 

 description of a Ray fishing expedition in which he took part 

 near Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1824 to Professor Jameson. 



' ' The first appearance of an animal of this species, since I 

 have been here (about eighteen months), was about two 

 months ago, when I was called out to the beach by some of 

 the inhabitants, whom I found, on going there, to be assem- 

 bled in great numbers, to see what they called the Sea Devil. 

 I confess my curiosity was not less excited than theirs, when 

 I saw floating close to the surface of the water, about twenty 

 yards from me, a large mass of living substance of a dark 

 colour, but of the shape and size of which I could not, at the 

 time, form any proper idea, it being so very different from 

 what I had ever before seen or heard of, farther than that I 

 supposed it to have been many times the size of what I now 

 believe it was. No time was lost in setting out in pursuit of 

 him, with harpoons, &c. ; and it was not long before he was 

 come up with, and struck with one of the harpoons, when he 

 made off with great velocity, towing the boat after him. As 

 he seemed to incline chiefly to the surface of the water, six or 

 seven more harpoons were (with the assistance of several canoes 

 that had come up) successively plunged into him, and all the 

 boats made fast to each other, which he was obliged to pull 

 after him, with several people in each. Such, however, was 



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