ofFishes found in Cornwall. ' 8£h- 



Centriscus. 



Trumpetfish. C. Scolopax. — A fish of this species was thrown 

 on shore in St. Austel Bay, and came into the possession 

 of William Rashleigh, Esq. of Menabilly, a gentleman 

 distinguished for his love of natural history, who possesses 

 a fine drawing of it. It was five inches long, and from the 

 back to the belly one inch and two-eighths ; in thickness 

 three-eighths of an inch ; it weighed three drams. The pro- 

 boscis, which to the eye measured an inch and five-eighths, 

 was formed of a bony substance, which was continued along 

 the back, where it terminated in a sharp point, and spreading 

 in the middle, where it makes an obtuse angle just above a 

 small fin behind the gills. 



CHONDROPTERYGIOUS FISHES. 



Raia. 



Torpedo or Cramp Ray. R. Torpedo. — ^This fish is extremely 

 rare. The numbing power of the Torpedo has been much 

 illustrated by the discoveries which have been made in 

 galvanism ; but the cause of this phaenomenon appears to 

 me not to have been explained. I would therefore suggest 

 the following observations on this subject. It has been 

 supposed, that by this faculty the Torpedo is enabled the 

 more readily to secure its prey ; and when Pennant took 

 a Surmullet from the stomach of a Torpedo, he concluded 

 that it must have been first disabled by the shock before 

 it could have been swallowed by its enemy. But I have 

 known a Lobster, whose agility is much superior to that of 

 a Surmullet, taken from the stomach of a Skate ; which fish 

 possesses no such formidable means of disabling its prey. 

 Without denying that the Torpedo may devour that which 



VOL. XIV. N it 



