OLD BRITISH TORPEDO. 543 



THE earliest notices of this fish on our coasts by English 

 writers were made by Smith in his History of Waterford, 

 and afterwards by Pennant and Walsh ; but as, according to 

 Baron Cuvier, several species have been included under the 

 name of the Raia Torpedo of Linnseus, the true name of one 

 British species is still doubtful, and it remains therefore for 

 some naturalist who is fortunate enough to obtain British 

 specimens to determine the particular species of our coast. 



Colonel Montagu, in his MS. notes, mentions having met 

 with two examples of the Torpedo ; but no description of 

 either of them is given. The first was of small size, and 

 was taken at Torcross, where it was so rare as to be unknown 

 to the oldest of the fishermen of that place. Of the second, 

 the notice is as follows : " I observed a very large specimen 

 that was taken on a turbot-hook off the coast of Tenby, in 

 Wales. It was dead when disengaged from the hook, or the 

 fisherman would certainly have had a shock that would have 

 made him remember the species again. It appeared, how- 

 ever, so rare an occurrence here, that no one knew the fish, 

 which was exhibited as an extraordinary creature. Its weight 

 was about one hundred pounds." 



The figure at the head of this subject was taken from a 

 small specimen which appears to be of the same species as 

 that figured by Pennant in the British Zoology ; but Pen- 

 nant's plate, which exhibits in the two outside figures the 

 under and upper surface of a female, the third and middle 

 figure being that of a male of smaller size, appears to have 

 been copied from a larger print representing specimens taken 

 on the sea-shore in the neighbourhood of La Rochelle. Mr. 

 Donovan's figure differs from that of Pennant in exhibiting 

 a marbled appearance on its upper surface, with five distinct 

 dark spots : it differs also in its form and proportions. 



The electrical powers of the Torpedo are so well under- 

 stood by the different names that have been applied to it, as 



