L14 SHARP-NOSED RAY. Class IV. 



On its body we found the Hirudo muricata, 

 which adhered very strongly, and when taken 

 off left a black impression. 



This fish has been supposed to be the Bos of 

 the antients, which was certainly some enormous 

 species of Ray, though we cannot pretend to 

 determine the particular kind : Oppian styles it, 



JLvgVT'a.'to; ita.vTicr<ri asr ip^ucnv. 

 Broadest among fishes. 



He adds an account of its fondness for human 

 flesh, and the method it takes of destroying men, 

 by over-laying and keeping them down by its 

 vast weight till they are drowned. Phile gives 

 much the same relation.* We are inclined to 

 give them credit, since a modern writer, t of 

 undoubted authority, gives the very same 

 account of a fish found in the South Seas, the 

 terror of those employed in the pearl fishery. 

 It is a species of ray, called there Manta or 

 the Quilt, from its surrounding and wrapping 

 up the unhappy divers till they are suffocated ; 

 therefore the negroes never go down, without a 

 sharp knife to defend themselves against the 

 assaults of this terrible enemy. 



* De propriet. Anita. 85. 



f Ulloa's voy. i. 132. 8vo. edit. 



