ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES. 



527 



and by means of this apparatus they give violent shocks to animals 

 with which they come in contact. 



Hardly less strange than the rays are those animal structures 



sm 



Fig. 4. Torpedo, ft, brain ; eo, eye and optic nerve ; /, electric organs ; sn, spinal nerves ; sm, 

 spinal marrow; /jg', pneumogastric nerves going to the electric organs; };g'', branch of the 

 preceding; g, gills. 



which remind us somewhat of tlie rays on the one hand, and the 

 sharks on the other, but Avhich differ from both in several important 

 respects, but especially in having a very long depressed and bony 



Fig. 5. Mackerel-Shark (Lamna punctata, Storer). 



snout, armed on each side with spines implanted like teeth, the whole 

 constituting a most formidable weapon. These are the sawfishes 

 (Fig. 7), which attain a length of fifteen feet or more. 



