94 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
limb projecting over and near the surface of a stream. The pike is so vora¬ 
cious and so pugnacious that it is called the fresh-water shark. 
Saw Perch ( Serranus cabrilla ) $ a Mediterranean species having a spinous 
dorsal fin, which is composed of from 
nine to twelve spines united. 
The Sea Devil, (Malthe vesper- 
tilio), or Bat-fish, is a creature some¬ 
what resembling the octopus, though 
its eight flat and broad arms are not 
provided with suckers. The illustra¬ 
tion on page 95 gives a better idea 
of its appearance than any printed European salmon (Mugil cephalus ). 
description could do. 
A singular adventure connected with harpooning a sea devil is said to have 
occurred. Four men, occupying two small skiffs, were fishing for sea devils . The 
boats had separated and each was pursuing its course independently of the 
•other, when suddenly they began to bear down upon each other with a rapidity 
altogether beyond the oar-craft of 
the human arm. By skill in steer¬ 
ing they managed to avoid a col¬ 
lision, but for quite a long while 
they would again and again ap¬ 
proach each other as though they 
were a pair of goats resolved upon 
each other’s destruction. It turned 
out that the crew in each boat had 
succeeded in fastening a harpoon into a colossal sea devil , and that in imi¬ 
tation of the whale they were dragging the boats hither and thither in a 
manner which rendered the story of Neptune and his dolphin steeds much less 
a matter of fable. 
The Blue-Fish (Pomatomus sal- 
tatrix) is the object sought by ama¬ 
teur fishermen in Atlantic waters, and 
has probably been responsible for 
greater waste of time and more fre- pike ( Esox Ludus). 
quent “ drawing of the long bow ” 
than any other fish that swims the waters. Undoubtedly the professional guides 
act in perfectly good faith, and do not intentionally rob the eager sportsmen; 
still they have the most unhappy faculty of taking one into the midst of a 
brook-trout (Salino fario). 
school of dog-fish, or of com¬ 
pelling him to spend his 
weary hours in catching sea- 
robins, or find time and tide 
and weather unexpectedly 
nine-pinned pike ( Poiypterus bichir). against them. Other per¬ 
sons, if they are to be be¬ 
lieved, have no such misfortunes, but the writer, though occasionally circum¬ 
venting the fish (and the fisherman), is willing to confess that most frequently 
he has found only the proverbial fisherman’s luck. It is said that blue- 
