72 THE OCEAN. 



and endeavouring to pierce each other with then 

 spines, which on these occasions are projected. I 

 have witnessed a battle of this sort which lasted 

 several minutes before eitlier would give way ; and 

 when one does submit, imagination can hardly con- 

 ceive the vindictive fury of the conqueror ; who, in 

 the most persevering and unrelenting way, chases his 

 rival from one part of the tub to another, until fairly 

 exhausted with fatigue. They also use their spines 

 with such fatal effect, that, incredible as it may 

 appear, I have seen one during a battle absolutely 

 rip his opponent quite open, so that he sank to the 

 bottom, and died. I have occasionally known three 

 or four parts of the tub taken possession of by as 

 many other little tyrants, who guard their territories 

 with the strictest vigilance, and the slightest invasion 

 invariably brings on a battle." * The Sting-rays 

 {Trygo7i), which are furnished with a hard and sharp 

 spine with toothed edges, near the base of the tail, are 

 accustomed to twist their long and flexible tail around 

 their enemy, while they inflict severe wounds with 

 the barbed spine. The Common Skates (Baia), on 

 the other hand, which have the tail studded with rows 

 of curved horny thorns, when irritated, are said to 

 bend the body nearly into a circle, and to dash about 

 the armed tail with violence in all directions. 



The goodness of God is manifest in the gregarious 

 habits of most of those fishes which constitute an 

 important article of human food, in the innumerable 

 individuals of which the shoals are composed, and 

 in the fecundity by which the populousness of these 



* Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. 329. 



