a half long in the shank. The line is made of small cording; it is always tanned before it is used, and is in length about three miles."

But this extent of line is nothing to what the Italians throw out in the Mediterranean. Their fishing is carried on in a tartan, which is a vessel much larger than ours; and they bait a line of no less than twenty miles long, with above ten or twelve thousand hooks. This line is not regularly drawn every six hours, as with us, but remains for some time in the sea; and it requires the space of twenty-four hours to take it up. By this apparatus they take Rays, sharks, and other fish; some of which are above a thousand pounds weight. When they have caught any of this magnitude, they strike them through with a harpoon, to bring them on board, and kill them as fast as they

can.

This method of catching fish is obviously fatiguing and dangerous; but the value of the capture generally repays the pains. The skate and the thornback are very good food; and their size, which is from ten pounds to two hundred weight, very well rewards the trouble of fishing for them. But it sometimes happens that the lines are visited by very unwelcome intruders; by the Rough Ray, the Fireflare, or the Torpedo.

The Rough Ray inflicts but slight wounds with the prickles with which its whole body is furnished. To the ignorant it seems harmless, and a man would at first sight venture to take it in his hand, without any apprehension; but he soon finds, that there is not a single part of its body that is not armed with spines; and that there is no way of seizing the animal but by the little fin at the end of the tail.

But this animal is harmless, when compared to the Sting Ray, or Fire-flare, which seems to be the dread of even

the boldest and most experienced fishermen. The spine, with which it wounds its adversaries, is not venomous, as has been vulgarly supposed, but is, in fact, a weapon of offence belonging to this animal, and capable, from its barbs, of inflicting a very terrible wound, attended with dangerous symptoms; it is fixed to the tail, as a quill is into the tail of a fowl, and is annually shed in the same manner.

Is, however, the most remarkable of the Ray kind. The body of this fish is almost circular, and thicker than others of the same genus; the skin is soft, smooth, and of a dusky brown above, and white underneath; the eyes very small; the tail tapering to a point; and the weight of the fish from a quarter to fifteen pounds. Redi found one twenty-four pounds weight. The Electrical Rays are found in many parts of the European seas. The fishermen often discover it in Torbay, and sometimes of eighty pounds weight. They are partial to sandy bottoms, in about forty fathoms water, where they often bury themselves by flinging the sand over them, by a quick flapping of all the extremities. They bring forth their young in autumn. To all outward appearance, the Torpedo is furnished with no extraordinary qualities; yet such is the unaccountable power it possesses, that, the instant it is touched, it numbs not only the hand and arm, but some

times also the whole body. The shock received resembles the stroke of an electrical machine; sudden, tingling, and painful. It is, in truth, electric. "The instant," says Kempfer, "I touched it with my hand, I felt a terrible numbness in my arm, and as far up as the shoulder. Even if one treads upon it with the shoe on, it affects not only the leg, but the whole thigh upwards. Those who touch it with the foot, are seized with a stronger palpitation than even those who touch it with the hand. This numbness bears no resemblance to that which we feel when a nerve is a long time pressed and the foot is said to be asleep; it rather appears like a sudden vapour, which, passing through the pores, in an instant penetrates to the very springs o. life, whence it diffuses itself over the whole body, and gives real pain. The nerves are so affected, that the person struck imagines all the bones of his body, and particularly those of the limb that received the blow, are driven out of joint. All this is accompanied with a universal tremor, a sickness of the stomach, a general convulsion, and a total suspension of the faculties of the mind."

Reaumur, who made several trials upon this animal, has convinced the world that it is not necessarily, but by an effort, that the Torpedo numbs the hand of him that touches it. He tried several times, and could easily tell when the fish intended the stroke, and when it was about to continue harmless. Always before the fish intended the stroke, it flattened the back, raised the head and the tail; and then, by a violent contraction in the opposite direction, struck with its back against the pressing finger; and the body, which before was flat became humped and round.

The electric or be numbing organs are placed one on each side of the gills, reaching from thence to the semicircular cartilages of each great fin, and extending longitudinally from the interior extremity of the animal to the

transverse cartilage which divides the thorax from the abdomen, and within these limits they occupy the whole space between the skin of the upper and under surfaces. Each organ is about five inches in length, and at the anterior end, about three in breadth; they are composed of perpendicular columns, reaching from the upper to the under surface, varying in length according to the thickness of the parts of the body, from an inch and a half to half an inch. The engraving displays the interior of the lower electric or galvanic organ.

When the fish is dead, the whole power is destroyed, and it may be handled or eaten with perfect security. It is now known that there are more fish than this of the Ray kind possessed of the numbing quality, which has acquired them the name of the Torpedo.

There are two other species of Ray, which for their singular form deserve to be distinguished. The first is called the SEA DEVIL. Its nose and snout are divided, as it were, into two horns; and its sides are terminated by the fins. Its skin, towards the head, is variegated with dusky spots. It grows, sometimes, to the length of six or seven feet.

The SEA EAGLE is another species of this deformed tribe. It receives its name from its thin and expanded sides, which resemble the spread wings of an eagle. Its head, in some degree, resembles that of a toad: its eyes are large and prominent. It is generally found small, but is said sometimes to grow to a very large size.

THE LAMPREY.

THERE is a species of the Lamprey served up as a great delicacy among the modern Romans very different from ours. Whether theirs be the murena of the ancients, we

shall not pretend to say; but there is nothing more certain than that our Lamprey is not.

The Lamprey known among us is differently estimated, according to the season in which it is caught, or the place where it has been fed. Those that leave the sea to deposit their spawn in fresh waters are the best; those that are entirely bred in our rivers, and that have never been at sea, are considered as much inferior to the former. Those that are taken in the months of March, April, or May, just upon their leaving the sea, are reckoned very good; those that are caught after they have cast their spawn, are found to be flabby, and of little value.

It

The Lamprey much resembles the eel in its general appearance, but is of a lighter colour, and rather a clumsier make. It differs, however, in the mouth, which is round, and placed rather obliquely below the end of the nose. more resembles the mouth of a leech than an eel; and the animal has a hole on the top of the head, through which it spouts water, as in the cetaceous kind. There are seven holes on each side for respiration; and the fins are formed rather by a lengthening out of the skin, than any set of bones or spines for that purpose. As the mouth is formed resembling that of a leech, so it has a property resembling that animal, of sticking close to and sucking any body it is applied to. It is extraordinary the power they have of adhering to stones; which they do so firmly, as not to be drawn off without some difficulty. We are told of one that weighed but three pounds; and yet it stuck so firmly to a stone of twelve pounds, that it remained suspended at its mouth; from which it was separated with no small difficulty. As to the intestines of the Lamprey, it seems to have but one great bowel, running from the mouth to the vent, narrow at both ends, and wide in the middle.

So simple a conformation seems to imply an equal sim