106 PLATYSOMI. 



tempting to cut out the hook with a knife, instant- 

 ly felt a strange sensation in the arm, as though a 

 cord had been suddenly drawn round it. 



As there is a fish known to those who habitu- 

 ally fish, inshore, for a living, the whole year round, 

 as the " numbing-fish" or benumbing, it is very 

 conclusive that it has been seen : — resembling, 

 somewhat, the skate, it would not be strange if those 

 who accidentally drew them up, should suppose 

 it one of them, particularly if it was jerked from 

 the hook, — a common mode of disengaging the 

 skate. 



THE TORPEDO. 



The Electric-Ray, or Topedo, is found in most 

 of the European seas, but in Torbay, England, 

 particularly, they are often drawn up in a traul 

 net, with others; — sometimes they catch the 

 hook, and then it is, in handling them, that they 

 exhibit that curious electrical property, which 

 has given them the name of torpedo. 



Icthyologists describe about twenty species of 



