Claf&IV. SHARP-NOSED RAY. 65 
of Ray, tho’ we cannot pretend to determine the 
particular kind: Oppian {tyles it, : 
Dee ’ 
EveutarG TaVTETOS pL ix urive 
Broadeft among fifhes. 
He adds an account of its fondnefs of human 
flefh, and the method it takes of deftroying men, by 
over-laying and keeping them down by its vat 
weight till they are drowned. Phile gives much the 
fame relation*. We are inclined to afford them 
credit, fince a modern writer **, of undoubted au- 
thority, gives the very fame account of a fifth found 
in the South Seas, the terror of thofe employed in 
the pearl fifhery. It is a fpecies of ray, called 
there Manta, or the Quilt, from its furrounding 
and wrapping up the unhappy divers till they are 
fuffocated ; to guard againft which, the negroes 
never go down without a fharp knife to defend 
themfelves againft the affaults of this terrible 
enemy. 
* De propriet. Anim. 8c. 
** Ulloa’s voy. 1, 132+ 8u0. edit. 
U1, The 
