216 THE EYED TORPEDO. 



rather enlarged termination, are conspicuously indicated en the surface of the saw-blade. 

 The tip of the saw is covered with hard granular scales. The number of teeth is not the 

 same in every individual ; in a specimen in my possession there are twenty-eight on 

 each side of the saw. 



It is said that, like the sword-fish, this creature will attack the whale, thrusting its 

 armed beak into the soft blubber-covered body of the huge cetacean, and avoiding, by 

 its superior agility, the strokes of the tortured animal's tail, any blow of which, "if it 

 succeeded in its aim, would crush the assailant to death. The Saw-fish does certainly 

 use this weapon for the destruction of fish. Captain Drayson has informed me that 

 when lying off the Cape, he has more than once seen a Saw-fish come charging among 

 a shoal of fishes, striking right and left with the serrated edges of the saw, and killing or 

 disabling numbers of the fish by this process. 



In all the Saw- fishes the skin is covered with minute rounded or hexagonal scales, 

 arranged like the stones of a mosaic. The blow-holes are very large, and are set some 

 distance behind the eyes. The mouth is on the under surface of the head, and is 

 furnished with a crushing apparatus, not unlike that which has already been described 

 as belonging to the smooth hound dog-fish. 



The colour of the Saw-fish is dark grey above, nearly black in some individuals, the 

 sides are ashen, and the abdomen white. It oftens attains a great size, measuring fifteen 

 or eighteen feet in length, including the saw. 



The TENTACULATED SAW-FISH (Pristiophorus cirrdtus) is worthy of notice as forming 

 a transition link between the sharks and the true Saw-fish. In this creature, the snout 

 is lengthened; and armed with spines, but these structures are of different lengths, 

 hooked, and only attached to the skin, and not implanted in the bone, as is the case 

 with the true Saw-fish. 



IN the true Eays or Raidse, the fore part of the body is flattened and formed into a 

 disc-like shape, by the conjunction of the breast fins with the snout. 



Our first example of the Rays is the TORPEDO, a fish long celebrated for its power of 

 emitting at will electrical shocks of considerable intensity. In consequence of this 

 property, it is sometimes called the CRAMP-FISH, CRAMP RAY, ELECTRIC RAY, or 

 NUMB-FISH. 



The object of this strange power seems to be twofold, namely, to defend itself from the 

 attacks of foes, and to benumb the swift and active fish on which it feeds, and which its 

 slow movements would not permit it to catch in fair chase. It does not always deliver the 

 electric shock when touched, though it is generally rather prodigal of exercising its potent 

 though invisible arms, but will allow itself to be touched, and even handled, without 

 inflicting a shock. But if the creature be continually annoyed, the shock is sure to come 

 at last, and in such cases with double violence. It has been observed, moreover, that the 

 Hsh depresses its eyes just before giving its shock. 



The power of the shock varies greatly in different individuals, with some being so 

 strong as to cause the recipient to fall to the ground as if shot, and with others, so feeble 

 that it is hardly perceived. According to M. de Quatrefages, the fishermen are sometimes 

 unpleasantly made aware that they have captured a Torpedo in their meshes, by the 

 sudden shock through their arms and breast as they are hauling in their net. Anglers, 

 too, are sometimes struck by means of the line which they are holding, and I presume that 

 in either case the line must be wet, or it would not act as a conductor of the 

 electrical fluid. 



One of these fishes was placed in a vessel of water, and a duck was forced to swim 

 about in the same vessel. The Torpedo soon became excited, and in a few hours the duck 

 was dead. Fish also of different kinds are killed by this remarkable influence, and it is 

 plausibly suggested by one writer, that this mode of destruction would render them liable 

 to rapid decomposition, and would aid the organs of digestion in a creature like the 

 Torpedo, where they are but imperfectly developed. 



The shocks of this fish were once used as remedies for gout and fevers. In the first 

 case, the patient had to lay his foot on the Torpedo, and bravely hold it in its place. 



