660 



A HISTORY OF 



recruits of water, as well as provision. In 

 some seasons they are found to feel epidemic 

 disorders, and are seen dead by the water 

 side, without any apparent cause : yet still 

 they are animals of all others the most viva- 

 cious, and they often live and subsist upon 

 such substances as are poisonous to the more 

 perfect classes of animated nature. 



It is not easy to determine whether the 

 poisonous qualities which many of them are 

 found to possess, either when they wound our 

 bodies externally with their spines, or when 

 they are unwarily eaten at our tables, arises 

 from this cause. That numbers of fishes in- 

 flict poisonous wounds, in the opinion of 

 many, cannot be doubted. The concurrent 

 testimony of mankind, they think sufficient 

 to contradict any reasonings upon this head, 

 taken from anatomical inspection. The great 

 pain that is felt from the sting given by the 

 back fin of the weaver, bears no proportion 

 to the smallness of the instrument that inflicts 

 the wound. How the poison is preserved, 

 or how it is conveyed by the animal, it is not 

 in our power to perceive ; but its actual ex- 

 istence has been often attested by painful ex- 

 perience. In this instance we must decline 

 conjecture, satisfied with history. 



The fact of their being poisonous when 

 eaten, is equally notorious ; and the cause 

 equally inscrutable. My poor worthy friend 

 Dr. Grainger, who resided for many years at 

 St. Christopher's, assured me, that of the fish 

 caught, of the same kind, at one end of the 

 island, some were the best and most whole- 

 some in the world ; while others taken at a 

 different end were always dangerous, and 

 most commonly fatal. We have a paper in 

 the Philosophical Transactions, giving an 

 account of the poisonous qualities of those 

 found at New Providence, one of the Bahama 

 islands. The author assures us, that the 

 greatest part of the fish of that dreary coast 

 are all of a deadly nature : their smallest 

 effects being to bring on a terrible pain in 

 the joints, which, if terminating favourably, 

 leaves the patient without any appetite for 

 several days after. It is not those of the 

 most deformed figure, or the most frightful to 

 look at, that are alone to be dreaded; all 

 kinds, at different times, are alike dangerous; 

 and the same species which has this day 



served for nourishment, is the next, if tried, 

 found to be fatal ! 



This noxious quality has given rise to much 

 speculation, and many conjectures. Some 

 have supposed it to arise from the fishes on 

 these shores eating of the manchineel apple, 

 a deadly vegetable poison, that sometimes 

 grows pendent over the sea : but the quantity 

 of those trees growing in this manner, bears 

 no proportion to the extensive infection of 

 the fish. Labat has ascribed it to their eat- 

 ing the galley fish, which is itself most 

 potently poisonous : but this only removes 

 our wonder a little farther back; for it may 

 be asked, with as just a cause for curiosity, 

 how comes the galley fish itself to procure its 

 noxious qualities ? Others have ascribed the 

 poison of these fishes to their feeding upon 

 copperas beds : but I do not know of any 

 copper mines found in America. In short, as 

 we cannot describe the alembic by which the 

 rattlesnake distils its malignity, nor the pro- 

 cess by which the scorpion, that lives among 

 roses, converts their sweets to venom, so we 

 cannot discover the manner by which fishes 

 become thus dangerous ; and it is well for us 

 of Europe that we can thus wonder in secu- 

 rity. It is certain that, with us, if fishes, such 

 as carp or tench, acquire any disagreeable 

 flavour from the lakes in which they have 

 been bred, this can be removed, by their be- 

 ing kept some time in finer and better water: 

 there they soon clear away all those disagree- 

 able qualities their flesh had contracted, and 

 become as dejicate as if they had been 

 always fed in the most cleanly manner. But 

 this expedient is with us rather the precau- 

 tion of luxury, than the effect of fear: we 

 have nothing to dread from the noxious 

 qualities of our fish; for all the animals our 

 waters furnish are wholesome. 



Happy England ! where the sea furnishes 

 an abundant and luxurious repast, and the 

 fresh waters an innocent and harmless pas- 

 time; where the angler, in cheerful solitude, 

 strolls by the edge of the stream, and fears 

 neither the coiled snake, nor the lurking 

 crocodile ; where he can retire at night, with 

 his few trouts (to borrow the pretty descrip- 

 tion of old Walton) to some friendly cottage, 

 where the landlady is good, and the daugh- 

 ter innocent and beautiful ; where the room 



