280 A HISTORY OF 



From these harmless animals, covered with a slight coat of mail 

 we may proceed to others, more thickly defended, and more formida 

 bly armed, whose exact station in the scale of fishes is not yet ascer 

 tained. 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 determine. At 

 present we seem better acquainted with their figure than their history; 

 their deformity is obvious; and the venomous nature of the greatest 

 number has been confirmed by fatal experience. This circumstance, 

 as well as the happy distance at which they are placed from us, being 

 all found in the Oriental or American seas, may have prevented 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 its 

 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 many kinds : some threatening 

 only with spines, as the Sea Hedgehog ; others defended with a bony 

 helmet that covers the head, as the Ostracion ; 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 offensively and defensively with 

 bones and spines, as the Shield Orb. 



Of these scarce one is without its peculiar weapon of offence. The 

 centriscus wounds with its spine ; the ostracion poisons with its ve- 

 nom ; the orb is impregnable, and is absolutely poisonous if eaten. 

 Indeed their figure is not such as would tempt one to make the expe- 

 riment ; and the natives of those countries where they are found 

 are careful to inform foreigners of their danger ; yet a certain sailot 

 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 instantly fell sick, and died a few days after. 



These frightful animals are of different sizes; some not bigger than 

 a football, and others as large as a bushel. They almost ail flatten 

 and erect their spines at pleasure, and increase the terrors of their 

 appearance in proportion 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 provoked or alarmed, the 

 body that before seemed small, swells to the view; the animal vi- 

 sibly grows rounder and larger, and all its prickles stand upright, and 

 threaten the invader on every side. The Americans often amuse 

 themselves with the barren pleasure of catching these frightful crea- 

 tures by a line and hook, baited with a piece of sea-crab. The ani 

 mal approaches the bait with its spines flattened ; but when hooked 

 and stopped by the line, straight all its spines are erected ; the whole 

 body being armed in such a manner at all points, that it is impos- 

 lible to lay hold of it on any part. For this reason it is dragged 



