STmama fishes. 273 



A remarkable power of stinging is possessed by some of 

 the inhabitants of the deep. What is called the Trygon, or 

 Sting-Ray, is able to inflict severe wounds by its muscular 

 and flexible tail, which it winds around the object of attack, 

 and with the sword or spine at its base, pierces and lascer 

 ates. This weapon is armed with rows of serrated tee*h at 

 each side, every tooth of which is a small saw. The worst 

 and most dangerous wound, however, is when the elastic 

 tail dashes the apparatus, saws and all, into an unfortunate 

 fisherman's thigh (as has frequently happened, in spite of 

 the ordinary precautions), dragging it out again to make a 

 new lunge before the unhappy victim has had time to escape ; 

 and so expert is this fish in this small-sword exercise, and 

 so swiftly does stroke follow stroke, that persons who have 

 seen it in operation report that, but for the spouting of 

 fresh blood, and the larger display of raw surface, they 

 would have declared the weapon motionless all the time. 

 The terrible suffering inflicted by this atrocious caudine 

 weapon — which is borne by four other colossal skates, as 

 well as by the sea-eagle — has caused it to be regarded with 

 as much superstitous reverence by fishermen as was the tail 

 of his music-master, Chiron, by the youthful Achilles. 



The Sting-Ray fish attains a colossal size in the Mediter- 

 ranean. He possesses an enormous pair of fins, w^iich, 

 stretching out from either side of the body, offer a striking 

 resemblance to a pair of wide-spread wings; and he has, 

 moreover, a detached head, terminating in a porrect (ex- 

 tended) process, like a beak, and a large pair of piercing 

 bright eyes, whence the origin of its appellation of " sea- 

 eagle." 



The Great Weever or Sting-Bull, and the Little or Yiper 

 Weever, possess the same formidable properties as the 

 stinging ray. Both are found on English coasts, the former 

 being about a foot long, and the other about four or five 

 inches. Though of such small dimensions, these fishes are 



