644 



A HISTORY OF 



long. The colour, when fresh taken, is of a 

 pale brown, the shape of the body round, and 

 the back fin reaches all the way from the 

 head to the tail. Beneath the throat is a 

 round depression, of a whitish colour, sur- 

 rounded by twelve brown spots, placed in a 

 circle. It is taken in England at the mouth 

 of rivers, four or five miles distant from the sea. 



The body of the Pipe Fish, in the thickest 

 part, is not thicker than a swan-quill, while 

 it is above sixteen inches long. This is angu- 

 lar, but the angles being not very sharp, they 

 are not discernible until the fish is dried. Its 

 general colour is an olive-brown, marked with 

 numbers of bluish lines, pointing from the 

 back to the belly. It is. viviparous ; for on 

 crushing one that was just taken, hundreds of 

 very minute young ones were observed to 

 crawl about. 



The Hippocampus, which, from the form 

 of its head, some call the Sea-horse, never 

 exceeds nine inches in length. It is about as 

 thick as a man's thumb, and the body is said, 

 while alive, to have hair on the fore-part, 

 which falls off when it is dead. The snout is 

 a sort of a tube with a hole at the bottom, to 

 which there is a cover, which the animal can 

 open and shut at pleasure. Behind the eyes 

 there are two fius which look like ears ; and 

 above them are two holes which serve for 

 respiration. The whole body seems to be 

 composed of cartilaginous rings, on the inter- 

 mediate membranes of which several small 

 prickles are placed. It is found in the Medi- 

 terranean, and also in the Western Ocean ; 

 and, upon the whole, more resembles a great 

 caterpillar than a fish. The ancients con- 

 sidered it as extremely venomous ; probably 

 induced by its peculiar figure. 



From these harmless animals, covered with 

 a slight coat of mail, we may proceed to 

 others, more thickly defended, and more for- 

 midably armed, whose exact station in the 

 scale of fishes is not yet ascertained. While 

 Linnaeus ranks them among the cartilaginous 

 kinds, a later naturalist places them among 

 the spinous class. With which tribe they 

 most agree, succeeding observations must de- 

 termine. At present we seem better acquaint- 

 ed with their figure than their history : their 

 deformity is obvious ; and the venomous na- 

 ture of the greatest number, has been confirm- 

 ed by fatal experience. This circumstance, 



as well as the happy distance at which they 

 are placed from us, being all found in the 

 Oriential or American seas, may have pre- 

 vented a more critical inquiry ; so that we 

 know but little of the nature of their malignity, 

 and still less of their pursuits and enmities in 

 the deep. 



In the first of this tribe we may place the 

 Sea Orb, which is almost round, has a mouth 

 like a frog, and is from seven inches to two 

 feet long. Like the porcupine, from whence 

 it sometimes takes ils name, being also called 

 the Sea Porcupine, it is covered over with 

 long thorns or prickles, which point on every 

 side ; and, when the animal is enraged, it can 

 blow up its body as round as a bladder. Of 

 this extraordinary creature there are nmny 

 kinds: some threatening only with spines, as 

 the Sea Hedgehog; others defended with a 

 bony helmet that covers the hi ad, as the Os- 

 tracion ; others with a coat of mail from the 

 head to the tail, where it terminates in a point, 

 as the Centriscus; and others still armed offen- 

 sively and defensively with bones and spines, 

 as the Shield Orb. 



Of these scarcely one is without its peculiar 

 weapon of offence. Thecentriscus wounds with 

 its spine ; the ostracion poisons w ith its venom ; 

 theorb is impregnable, and is absolutely poison- 

 ous if eaten. Indeed, their figure is not such s 

 would tempt one to make the experiment 4 

 and the natives of those countries where they 

 are found, are careful to inform foreigners of 

 their danger: yet a certain sailor at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, not believing what the Dutch 

 told him concerning their venom, was resolved 

 to make the experiment, and break through a 

 prejudice, which, he supposed, was founded 

 on the animal's deformity. He tried, and ate 

 one ; but his rashness cost him his life ; he in- 

 stantly fell sick, and died a few days after. 



These frightful animals are of different 

 sizes ; some not bigger than a foot-ball, and 

 others as large as a bushel. They almost all 

 flatten and erect their spines at pleasure, and 

 increase the terrors of their appearance in pro- 

 portion to the approach of danger. At first 

 they seem more inoffensive; their body oblong, 

 with all their weapons pointing towards the 

 tail ; but, upon being proveked or alarmed, 

 the body, that before seemed small, swells to 

 the view ; the animal visibly grows rounder 

 and larger, and all its prickles stand upright, 



