The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 1 75 



in the torpedo. Such was the form of the tail in the Atlantic 

 specimens taken by Le Vaillant in his voyage to Africa. All 

 these differences elevate the Cephaloptera into a family of the 

 Plagiostomi, as distinct as the squatina is from the raia, or the 

 torpedo from the trygon. 



Kisso concludes his description of Gephaloiotcra Massena, 

 the great monster fish of the Mediterranean, with these obser- 

 vations. He says: — "It is a fish of dimensions so extraor- 

 dinary, of a shape so remarkable, and endowed with such sin- 

 gular affections, that one undoubtedly feels astonished it has 

 remained unknown till now, living, as it does, in a sea in which 

 systematic fishing has been carried on for so many ages. It is 

 true that it is exceedingly rare, and that its capture is always 

 looked upon as a presage of great events by those whose minds 

 yield to prejudices. These fishes, however, come near shore 

 only when they are driven in by storms/''* 



One cannot contemplate the expanse of flesh in a sea-devil 

 without wishing for a sight of the giant economy when the skin 

 is removed, with its numerous phalanges divided into parts ; its 

 cartilaginous belt, girding in the cavity of its mouth and sto- 

 mach ; its carpal bones, its pelvic apparatus, and that cranial 

 expansion with its adaptation for scooping in food. The gigantic 

 mass would present a prodigious map of the structure of the 

 fish. 



The Cephaloptera affect the surface waters to obtain the ne- 

 cessary degree of warmth for the maturation of the foetus, the fish 

 being viviparous. Our fishermen say that the mother fish makes 

 the violent leaps she is seen to take out of the water to eject 

 the foetus from the matrix ; that the young fish is then observed 

 to fall from her ; and that for a time it swims upon the parent's 

 back, and possibly enters the wide mouth-sack when necessary 

 to seek shelter from apprehended danger. As approach to these 

 monsters is always hazardous, the observation of such a fact as 

 this last must ever be casual and doubtful. Nothing is certain 

 but that its habits are peculiar. Le Vaillant, when speaking" 

 of the three fishes he saw in 10" 15' north in the Atlantic, 

 one so large that it seemed fifty or sixty feet wide, relates that 

 they all three carried each on his horns a white fish about half 

 a yard long, which appeared to be stationed there on duty as 



* Le Cephaloptere Massena, est un poisson dont ]es dimensions sont si extra- 

 ordinaires, les formes si remarquables, ct les affections si singulieres, qu'on sera- 

 sans doute etonne qu'il soit reste ineonnu jusqu'a, co jour ; quoique vivant dans 

 tine rner sur laquelle Part de la peche s'exerce depuis tant de siecles. II est yrai 

 qu'il y est fort rare, efc que sa capture y est toujours regarded comme un presage de 

 grands evenemens, par les esprits sounds aux prejuges. Ces poissons ne s'appro- 

 chent des rivages que lorsqu'ds y eehouent par 1'efl'et des tempetes. — Ivhihyologie 

 de Nice, ou Misioire naturelle des Poisons du JDepariemcnt des Alpes mariiimeSy 

 par A. Eisso, Membre associe de l'Academie Imperiale de Turin. Paris, 1810. 



