TUE TORPEDO AND GYMNOTUS. 159 



plate, wliile the rest of its body is covered with a soft 

 skin. The hermit does not trouble itself to look for 

 an empty shell, or to drive the owner of a shell out 

 of his home; lie wisely eats him. The Coquillauni- 

 valva — helix-shaped, liked our garden snail — is easy 

 to transport. Having devoured the inhabitant, and 

 comfortably ensconced himself in one of these shells, 

 some imprudent neighbour of the supposed mollusc 

 approaches to make a meal of him, — the crab's head 

 pops out, and the would-be eater is eaten. 



Let us return to the high seas. There we find 

 the ray, a flat fish, with two different coloured sur- 

 faces. The skin of some species is so rough that it 

 is employed, like that of the sea-cow, to polish ivory 

 and various woods. A powerful jaw, in some in- 

 stances a tail set with spines, are for the ray for- 

 midable weapons. In fact, all these monsters are 

 apparently furnished with means of defence, and 

 breathe defiance to their victims even from a dis- 

 tance. Sometimes their striking colours, or the 

 phosphorescent aureole which surrounds them, awakes 

 the attention of the feeble, and gives them time to 

 prepare for the attack. 



In the torpedo and the gymnotus there is nothing 

 outward to suggest how terribly they are armed. The 

 one formed like the raiadae, the other like an eel or 

 snake, they carry weapons more to be dreaded than 



