368 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

socket The man, of course, expired in a very few minutes,
Accidents were often happening, and always fatal, and yet the
negroes, who seldom think beyond the present moment, could
not be dissuaded from bathing. A man walking in the sea, —
up to his knees, was dragged away by one, almost before my
eyes.’

The Rays. The Rays are large flat fish of which there are
numerous species, the Thornback and the Common Skate
being the best known. They have large pectoral fins, and
some species grow to an enormous size. The Skate has been
known to measure six or seven feet. Other species are the
Homelyn Ray and the Sandy Ray, which like the Thornback
and the Skate are found in British waters. The Sting Ray
and the Eagle Ray cover wider areas and grow to a gigantic
size in tropic seas. It isa large species of the Eagle Ray that
is known as the Sea Devil of the tropics. These fish, though
very large, display no great antipathy to man, though from
their enormous size and strength they are a source of danger
“to small craft. Mr. Swinburne Ward in a letter to Colonel
Playfair, quoted in Dr. Percival Wright’s concise ‘‘ Natural
History,”’ thus describes the capture of one of these monsters
off the Seychelles.

““Coming home we passed close to an enormous ‘ diable
de-mer ’ floating quietly about. We changed from the pirogue
to the whale-boat, which I had scientifically fitted up for the
gros porssons, and went alongside of him, driving a regular
whale harpoon right through his body. The way he towed
the water was beautiful, but we would not give him an inch of
line and he also had to succumb to a rather protracted lancing.
His size will give you an idea of his strength in the water—
forty-two feet in circumference! We got him a wash on the
beach, but the united strength of ten men could not get him
an inch further, so we were obliged to leave him there. By
this time the sharks will not have left much of him ; they
have not had such a meal as that for a long time. The fisher-