S!6b A HISTORY OF 



But tin., extent of line, which runs, as we have seen, three mile* 

 along the bottom, is nothing to what the Italians throw out in the 

 Mediterranean. Their fishing is carried on in a tartan, which is a 

 vessel mnch larger than ours ; and they bait a line of no less than 

 twenty miles long, with above ten or twelve thousand hooks. This 

 ime is called the parasina : and the fishing goes by that of the pielago. 

 This line is not regularly drawn every six hours, as, with us but remains 

 for some time in the sea, and it requires the space of twenty-four hours 

 to take it up. By this apparatus they take rays, sharks, and other fish ; 

 some of which are above a thousand pounds weight. When they have 

 caught any of this magnitude, they strike them through with a harpoon 

 to bring them on board, and kill them as fast as they can. 



This method of catching fish is obviously fatiguing, and dangerous ; 

 but the value of the capture generally repays the pain. The skate and 

 the thornback are very good food, and their size, which is from ten 

 pounds to two hundred weight, very well rewards the trouble of fishing 

 for them. But it somestimes happens that he lines are visited by very 

 unwelcome intruders; by the rough ray, the fire-flare, or the torpedo. 

 To all these the fishermen have the most mortal antipathy ; and when 

 discovered shudder at the sight : however^ they are not always so 

 much upon their guard, but that they sometimes feel the different re- 

 sentments of this angry tribe ; and, instead of a prize, find thay have 

 caught a vindictive enemy. When such is the case, they take care 

 to throw them back tnto the sea with the swiftest expedition. 



The rongh ray inflicts but slight wounds with the prickles with which 

 its whole body is furnished. To the ignorant it seems harmless, and 

 a man at first sight would venture to take it in his hand, without any ap- 

 prehension ; but he soon finds, that there is not a single part of its body 

 that is not armed with spines ; and that there is no way of seizing the 

 animal but by the little fin at the end of the tail. 



But this animal is harmless when compared to the fire-flare, which 

 seems to be the dread of even the boldest and most experienced fisher- 

 men. The weapon, with which Nature has armed this animal, which 

 grows from the tail, and which we described as barbed, and five inches 

 long, hath been an instrument of terror to the ancient fishermen as well 

 as the modern : and they have delivered many tremendous fables of its 

 astonishing effects. Pliny, ^Elian, and Oppian have supplied it with a 

 venom that affects even the inanimate creation ; trees that are struck by 

 it instantly lose their verdure, and rocks themselves are incapable of re- 

 sisting the potent poison. The enchantress Circe armed her son with 

 h spear headed with the spine of the trigon, as the most irresistible 

 weapon she could furnish him with ; a weapon that soon after was to be 

 Jie death of his own father. 



' That spears and darts," says Mr. Pennant, might, in very early 

 times, have been headed with bone instead of iron, we have no doubt. 

 The Americans head their arrows with the bones of fishes to tjiis day: 

 and from their hardness and sharpness they are no contemptible wea- 

 pons. But that this spine is possessed of those venomous qualities 

 ascribed to it, we have every reason to doubt; though some men ol 

 high reputation, and the whole body of fishermen, contend for its veno- 

 mous effects. It is, in fact, a weapon of offence belonging to thi 



