THE FIRE FLARE. 95 



Capable of inflicting a terrible wound. 



and may from thence alone be supposed to be 

 fatal ; terror might add poison to the pain, and 

 call up imaginary danger; hence the negroes 

 universally believe that the sting is poisonous: 

 yet they never die in consequence of the wound, 

 and the simplicity and slightness of the remedy 

 sufficiently argue the innoxiousness of the wound ; 

 for by opening the fish, and laying it to the part 

 injured, it effects a speedy cure. Hence there is 

 sufficient cause to declare against its venomous 

 qualities, notwithstanding the assertions of most 

 of the fishermen, and the opinion of some men 

 of learning : the spine of the ray seems to be in 

 fact a weapon of offence, capable of inflicting a 

 very terrible wound, and attended with very dan- 

 gerous symptoms ; but not possessed of any de- 

 gree of poison. The spine has no sheath to pre- 

 serve the supposed venom on its surface ; nor 

 has the animal any gland that separates the nox- 

 ious fluid. It is fixed to the tail as a quill is into 

 the tail of a fowl, and is annually shed in the 

 same manner ; it may therefore be necessary for 

 the creature's defence, but cannot be necessary 

 for its existence. 



Spears and darts, says Mr. Pennant, might 

 in very early times have been headed with the 

 spine of the fire flare, instead of iron. Even in 

 the present day it is used by some of the Ame- 

 rican tribes to point their arrows. 



The fire flare is found in almost all the Euro- 



