514 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



When pursuing their prey the rays employ their great pectoral fins, 

 which resemhle wings, and are aided hy a very delicate and mohile 

 tail ; they heat the waters in order to fall unexpectedly upon their 

 prey, as the eagle swoops down upon its victim. It may thus be called 

 the king of fishes, as the eagle is the king of birds. 



The Cramp-fish, Torpedo marmorata (Fig. 351), has considerable 

 analogy with the Eaia. Its flattened body forms a roundish disk, beyond 

 wilich its rays form large pectoral fins ; but the humeral girdle which 

 carries them, carries also, in a great hollow, a most singular organic 

 apparatus, which possesses, the property of producing violent electrical 

 commotions. This apparatus is placed in the interval between the 

 end of the muzzle and the extremity of the fin, and completes the 

 rounded disk of the body. The mouth is small, the slit crosswise ; the 

 jaws bare ; the teeth in squares of five. The eyes are small ; behind 

 them are two star-like spout-holes. On the lower surface of the breast 

 are two rows of small transverse slits, openings of the gill pouches, 

 like those of the rays. The tail is thick, short, and conical, carrying 

 part of the ventral, and terminating in a sort of caudal fin. On the 

 back are two small, soft, and adipose fins. The skin is smooth ; its 

 colour varies with the species; generally it is reddish-brown, with 

 eye-like spots of a deep blue in the centre ; sometimes azure, and sur- 

 rounded by a great brownish circle ; the spots being five or six. These 

 curious fishes are found in the Channel and on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean. 



The electrical effects produced on the fisherman who seizes them 

 were noted from early times; but Bedi, the Italian naturalist of the 

 seventeenth century, was the first who studied them scientifically. 

 Having caught and landed one of them with every precaution, " I 

 had scarcely touched and pressed it with my hand," says the Italian 

 naturalist, " than I experienced a tingling sensation, which extended 

 to my arms and shoulders, which was followed by a disagreeable 

 trembling, with a painful and acute sensation in the elbow joint, 

 which made me withdraw my arm immediately." 



Eeaumur also made some observations upon the Torpedo. "The 

 benumbing influence," he says, " is very different from any similar 

 sensation. All over the arm there is a commotion which it is impos- 

 sible to describe, but which, so far as comparison can be made, re- 

 sembles the sensation produced by striking the tender part of the 



