Mr Lament's Account of a Colossal Ray or Skate . 117 
foam on every side of him, —and roiling round and round to 
extricate himself from the pole. This might be considered as ha- 
ving given him the coup de grace , although, at short intervals 
afterwards, he was struck with two more harpoons* and several 
musket-balls were fired into him. Still he was able to set out again, 
taking the four boats after him, which he carried along with the 
greatest ease. Having gone in this way for some time, he came 
to a stop, and laid himself to the bottom, when, with all the lines 
that were attached to him, it was quite impossible to move bun. 
All expedients were nearly beginning to fail, when it was pro- 
posed to slacken the lines, which being done, bad the desired ef- 
fect, and he again set out. Having thus got him from the 
ground, inch by inch was gained upon him, till he was got near 
the surface, when he was struck with two large pikes. He now 
got rather faint; and the boats closing on him on every side, the 
combat became general with pikes, muskets, and every weapon 
we had. In fact, to such a pitch were all excited on the occa- 
sion, that, had a cool spectator seen the affray, he would un- 
doubtedly have imagined that it was his sable Majesty himself 
that we had got amongst us. He was now towed ashore, being 
about 5 hours since lie was first struck. This it required all the 
boats to do, and then but very slowly. His appearance now 
shewed the extraordinary tenacity of life of which this animal 
must be possessed, as his whole body was literally a heap of 
wounds, many of which were through and through, and he was 
not yet quite dead. This circumstance, with his great strength, 
is the cause of the name which has been given him by the fisher- 
men here, as they have never been able to succeed in taking one 
of them, and were firmly of opinion that it was impossible to do 
so. 
4< This monster is of the flat-fish kind. On measurement, 
it was found to be in length and breadth nearly the same, about 
fifteen feet, and in depth from three to four feet. It had the 
appearance of having no head, as there was no prominence at its 
mouth : on the contrary, its exterior margin formed, as it were, 
the segment of a circle, with its arc towards the animal's body, 
and opening into a large cavity of about two feet and a half in 
width, without teeth, into which a man went with so much ease, 
that I do not exaggerate when I say, that another might have 
