THE FIRE FLARE. 93 



Description. 



the animal was in full vigour, it was not able to 

 force the torpedinal fluid across the minutest 

 tract of air, not even from one link of a small 

 chain freely suspended to another, nor through 

 an almost invisible separation made by a pen- 

 knife in a slip of tinsoil pasted on sealing-wax. 



FIRE FLARE, OR STING RAY. 



THE fire flare, which is the dread of the 

 boldest and most experienced fishermen, has 

 quite a smooth body, and of a shape almost 

 round, much thicker and of a more elevated form 

 in the middle than any other rays, but grows 

 very thin towards the edges. The nose is very 

 sharp pointed, but short; the mouth small, and 

 filled with granulated teeth. The tail is very 

 thick at the beginning, and has a spine about 

 one-third of the length of the tail from the body; 

 this spine is about five inches long, flat on the 

 top and bottom, very hard, sharp pointed, and 

 the two sides thin, and closely and sharply 

 bearded the whole way. The tail extends four 

 inches beyond the end of the spine, and grows 

 very slender at the extremity. 



The Greek and Roman writers of ancient 

 times, with the exception of Aristotle, have given 

 a very terrible description of the spine of the 

 sting ray. .ZElian and Pliny assert, that there is 

 no cure for a wound inflicted by it. The former 



