512 



R A I A. 



tcrranean was the earliest known, and it may be con- 

 sidered as the typical species of the section. 



TOIIFEDO. One species of the torpedo, or " cramp j 

 fish," has been known as a rare straggler on the | 

 south coast of Britain for a considerable length of 

 time. But still, as no very correct description has 

 been given of any of the specimens, the particular 

 species or variety which is thus found on the British 

 shores has not been clearlv ascertained. 



The Mediterranean is the European sea in which 

 the torpedoes are most numerou?. It is indeed, in i 

 some respects, a sea of tropical character, far more 

 tropical than the mere consideration of latitude would 

 lead us to suppose. How much this may depend on 

 the volcanoes near its shores, and the volcanic fires 

 under its bed, it is not easy to say, but these have 

 unquestionably a very considerable effect upon it. 

 They appear to have had even more effect in more 

 early times, when they were numerous and more 

 distributed, when the extinct volcanoes ^in France, 

 which are now separated from the sea by the plain of 

 Languedoc, were near the shore, or rather, when the 

 shore was near them, and they were blazing away in 

 all their majesty. The fossil fishes and shells of 

 decidedly tropical character, which are found in vast 

 numbers in some parts of Italy, especially near the 

 Apennines, furnish the most conclusive evidence of 

 this ; and there is a conformity in the characters of 

 many of those that remain at the present day. 



In the matter of many of its fishes, the Mediter- 

 ranean has been fortunate in an observer and de- 

 scriber of the very first order. Risso, of Nice, who 

 published the Ichthyology of that city, that is, of the 

 sea in its neighbourhood, in IblO, corrected many 

 blunders, arid added much to our knowledge of the 

 fishes of the Mediterranean, and of none more than of 

 the torpedos. 



According to Ilisso, there are various species of 

 torpedo in the Mediterranean, all resembling each 

 other very closely in their more essential characters, 

 but differing much in size, in colour, in the strength 

 of the shocks which they are capable of giving, and 

 in their numbers and disposition to range. The one 

 most frequently met with is the common torpedo, the 

 Raia torpedo of earlier writers, and the Torpedo narke 

 of Risso. It is easily known by the number and dis- 

 tribution of the ocellated spots on the dorsal surface 

 of the disc. The ground colour of the upper part is 

 clouded or marbled with white, with russet, and with 

 brown ; and marked by five large spots of a blue 

 colour, with brown margins, which render them very 

 conspicuous. Another species not so common is the 

 one-spotted torpedo (7'. unimaculata), which has the 

 back of a yellow colour, dotted over with small points 

 of white, and one large blue spot on the centre of the 

 dorsal face of the disc. A third is the marbled tor- 

 pedo (T. marworala), which is without distinct spots 

 on the back, except brown ones ; and the ground of 

 the whole upper part, is marbled flesh colour. To a 

 fourth, Risso gave the name of Galvani's torpedo (T. 

 Galvani), in compliment to the discoverer of humid 

 or chemical galvanic action. It is without any spot 

 whatever on the back, which is of a plain reddish or 

 greyish brown, becoming darker toward the sides. 

 This is the largest of the Mediterranean species, and 

 the one which gives by far the most powerful shocks, 

 though both analogy and observation lead us to con- 

 clude that, with equal health, the shock is always 

 \iolent in proportion to the size of the fish that gives 



it. This species is described as being of a more 

 ranging disposition than the others ; and in conse- 

 quence of this lust habit, it is probably the one which 

 is occasionally found in the British seas, though, as 

 we have already hinted, the fact has not been clearly 

 established. 



Of the figures given by the earlier writers on 

 British fishes, it is impossible to speak with certainty 

 with the view to the ascertaining of the species. 

 The reason of this arises in part from the fact that 

 only one species had been described by the system- 

 atic ichthyologists, namely, the common one with the 

 five blue spots margined with brown upon the back. 

 This was always what they had reference to in their 

 descriptions, and sometimes the figures which they 

 gave agreed with this description, sometimes not. 

 Whether they did or did not agree does not appear, 

 however, to. be a matter of much consequence, as 

 none of them appears to have been directly taken 

 from a specimen obtained on the British shores. The 

 figure given by Donovan has the five spots, but the 

 source whence he obtained the copy is not known. 

 Pennant's figure, on the other hand, is without them, 

 and the origin of it is understood to have been a 

 specimen, without any spot?, obtained on the western 

 shores of France, and most probably the Torpedo 

 Galvani of Risso, which agrees with the discursive 

 character which he ascribes to that species ; and 

 some other observations tend to confirm this by the 

 large size of some specimens which have occurred. 

 The late Colonel Montague was always attentive to 

 every thing which could advance the knowledge ot 

 animated nature, and he mentions a specimen, taken 

 on a turbot hook off Tenby in Wales, which weighed 

 one hundred pounds; and he adds that "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." So unusual was 

 it, however, that flic Tenby fishermen knew nothing 

 of its characters, or even of its name, and merely 

 mentioned it as a strange monster of the deep, ex- 

 hibiting it as such for the gratification of the curious. 



The most extraordinary part of the organisation 

 and character of the torpedo is its electric or galvanic 

 apparatus. This apparatus lies in the anterior part, 

 in two lobes or portions, situated on each side of the 

 eyes, and temporal vents which are behind the eyes, 

 but not reaching so far backwards as the gills, or 

 principal articulations of the dorsal fins, thus leaving 

 both the breathing and the swimming of the fish com- 

 paratively free. It must be, however, that this appa- 

 ratus must to a certain extent encumber the fish, and 

 diminish its swimming power ; and ~11 who have had 

 opportunities of observing it agree in representing 

 the torpedo as a dull and slusrgish fish in the water. 

 It is said to keep on the banks of soft mud, such as 

 are frequented by turbot and soles, and to move about 

 rather heavily, though that does not agree exactly 

 with the ranging character ascribed to the most 

 powerful species. It agrees, however, with the ana- 

 logy of all other fishes which are furnished with an 

 electric apparatus, and capable of giving shocks ; for 

 the Gynmotus and the Sihtrux elcctricux are both dull 

 and sluggish fishes. 



In the whole of them the electric or galvanic appa- 

 ratus is constructed in a manner somewhat similar. 

 It consists of a series of prismatic tubes, arranged close 

 together, with thin membranous walls, and divided 

 into short lengths by cross partitions, a fluid being 



