FISHES AND FISHING. 159 



him in food ; his water was changed once a week, 

 and was kept at the constant temperature of from 76 

 to 80 degrees of heat. 



Professor Faraday, with several other scientific 

 gentlemen, I was informed, caused him to be irri- 

 tated, and then tried his powers with a galvanometer, 

 and found he could have killed a horse. He was, very 

 properly, placed out of the reach of any incautious 

 visitor. 



This curious fish does not appear to have been 

 known to the Greeks ; the cramp fish, known to them, 

 was aflat fish, of a dirty yellow colour, resembling 

 sand or gravel, the body almost circular, with an irre- 

 gular straight tail. This cramp fish of the ancients, 

 or torpedo of the moderns, if we are to credit Oppian, 

 would take a bait — as he gives this description of the 

 efi'ect upon the fisherman, who happened to hook 

 him — 



" The cramp-fish, when the pungent pain alarms, 

 Exerts his magic pow'rs and poison'd charms, 

 Clings round the line, and bids th' embrace infuse 

 From fertile cells comprest his subtil juice. 

 Th' aspiring tide its restless volumes rears, 

 Rolls up the steep ascent of slipp'ry hairs, 

 Then down the rod with easy motion slides, 

 And entering in the fisher's hand subsides. 

 On ev'ry joint an icy stiffness steals, 

 The flowing spirits bind, and blood congeals. 

 Down drops the rod dismist, and floating lies, 

 Drawn captive in its turn, the fish's prize." 

 Bookiii. Canto 205 et seq. Oxford University edition, 1722. 



