208 THE BUTTERFLY RAY. 



with a bladder between each coin and its successor in fact, a kind of voltaic pile. The 

 length of the columns, and consequently the number of discs, varies according to their position 

 in the body. The columns extend quite through the creature, from the skin of the back To 

 that of the abdomen, and are clearly visible on both sides, so that those of the middle are 

 necessarily the longest, and those at either end become gradually shorter. In many large 

 specimens, more than eleven hundred columns were counted, and the number of discs is on an 

 average a hundred to the inch. It seems, from the best researches, that the growth of this 

 organ is produced, not by the increase of each column, but by a continual addition to their 

 number. A vast amount of blood-vessels pass through the electric organ, and it is permeated 

 with nerves in every direction. 



How the electrical effect is produced is a very deep mystery. In fact, we know scarcely 

 aught of this marvellous power, save the knowledge that it pervades all nature, and even in its 

 external manifestations is one of the most ethereal and most potent o the second means 

 through which the will of the Creator guides His universe. That the same electrical principle 

 exists in all animals is famDiarly known, and also that it is far more intense in some 

 individuals than in others of the same species. It is known that the contact of two different 

 kinds of flesh, such as the muscle of a fish and an ox, both newly killed, will produce similar 

 effects ; and that it exists so largely in human beings, that no two individuals can place 

 themselves on isolated stools, and join their hands, without emitting so much electricity by 

 that slight contact, that the instrument will record its presence. But the origin of this 

 wonderful power eludes our mental grasp like the receding waters of the mirage, and the 

 increase of our knowledge serves but to betray the extent of our ignorance. 



I cannot but think that this subtle and potent emanation, which is able to strike the 

 victim through an intervening space of the fluid common to both aggressor and sufferer, has 

 some affinity with the still more subtle and equally mysterious influence by which certain of 

 the serpent race are enabled to paralyze or attract the creatures which they could not secure 

 by actual contact. It may possibly be that the electric powers of the Torpedo, which need 

 water or some other conducting substance for their exercise, are, after all, but a more concen- 

 trated and palpable manifestation of that force, which enables the rattlesnake to arrest 

 an animal not in physical contact with itself, the pointed finger to lay a bird motionless on its 

 back until released by a sudden sound or touch, and one human being to influence his fellow 

 without the use of words, and to attract or repel him by an irresistible though invisible 

 agency. 



It is rather remarkable that even the Torpedo, gifted with such puissant arms, dealing 

 pain and death around at will, should find at all events one foe insensible to the electric 

 stroke, and perhaps even needing its exciting influence to preserve it in health. This is 

 a parasitic creature, termed scientifically the Branchellion, which clings to the Torpedo and 

 feeds upon its juices, quite indifferent to all the shocks which its victim dispenses. It 

 generally measures from an inch to an inch and a half in length. 



This fish is found in the Mediterranean, and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and occasion- 

 ally off the Cape. Happily, the Torpedo does not attain a very great size, one of the largest 

 specimens being about four feet long, and weighing sixty or seventy pounds. 



Of the Torpedo family there are three species known to American waters. The Numb- 

 fish, or Cramp-fish, Torpedo, was formerly common off Cape Cod, Mass., ranging southward to 

 Florida. 



A specimen weighing sixty pounds was sent to Boston, where Dr. Storer examined it. It 

 was powerful enough to give an all sufficient shock to an average man. 



A species is known in California waters. The Ray family proper, embracing the forms 

 called Skates, has four genera and about forty species. Those in American waters are : the 

 Common Skate, Ocellated Ray, Starry Ray, Brier Ray, Barn-door Skate, Granulated Skate. 

 On the Pacific coast are four kinds. The Skates are well known to all who go down to the sea 

 "to fish." 



The Butterfly Ray inhabits the same waters. The young of the Skates are produced from 

 eggs, called barrows, from their resemblance to hand barrows. Many have seen those black or 



