172 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
interesting account of the squid fishery^ off Nisi-Bama, 
in the Old Islands. On nearing the anchorage^ on the 
19th November^ 1859^ they were struck by the number 
of lights on the water^ moving in all direetions^ and on 
inquiry they found that they were from fishing-boats 
on the look-out for Ika-surame, or squids. The lights 
were produced by kindling birch-bark in small kinds 
of gratings, with long wooden handles, — machines known 
among seafaring men by the name of devils. The flame 
of the fires is very clear and vivid ; and the devils, 
being held over the sides of the boats, attract the 
squids. They were a species of Ommastre/jhes, usually 
called by the fishermen the flying-squids, or sea-arrows, 
as they swim very rapidly over the surface of the water, 
in immense shoals. They were taken by jigging.” 
The jig^^ is of iron, and consists of a long shank, sur- 
mounted by a circlet of small recurved hooks. These 
cuttles are favourite articles of food, both with Japanese 
and Chinese, and are carefully dried for the market, and 
sold in great quantities. Near Hakodadi, there is, we 
are told by Mr. Adams, a small fishing village exclu- 
sively devoted to the catching and curing of the squid ; 
and many hundreds of thousands may be seen daily 
drying in the open air, all nicely cleaned ; each kept flat 
by means of little bamboo stretchers, and suspended in 
regular rows on lines, which are raised on poles about 
six feet from the ground. The open spaces, and all the 
houses in the village, are filled with these squid-laden 
lines. Squids everywhere form a novel kind of screen. 
Pliny speaks of the springing loligo, and Trebius 
Niger remarks that whenever it is seen darting above 
the surface of the water, it portends a change ; and 
also that they sometimes dart above the surface in such 
