110 TKE TORPEDO. 



take it by purfuit : and as this fifh has been found in it's 

 flomach, it juftifies P/inys account of the manner in which 

 this animal fecures its prej. The torpedo is taken at 

 T^orhay, off Pembroke, and at Waterford'm Ireland; it 

 is caught with the other fiat iiili, with the trawl, and is 

 commonly found in water forty fathom deep, in compa- 

 ny with the congenerous xzys *. 



Thofe animals are faid to bring forth their yo'jng a- 

 bout the time of the autumnal equinox f; but from a dif- 

 feiSton of one made by a French gentleman, they feem ca- 

 pable of fuperfoetation, and of confequence muft pi-oduce 

 young at different times. Rondeletius J- mentions two 

 fpecies of the torpedo, and Willoughhy defcribes an Ame- 

 rican kind after Margrave, of a foot and nine inches in 

 length, and feven in breadth. It is without teeth, and 

 has two fpiracula below the neck §. 



7^^ Fire-JJare, or Sting- jj 



V V ERE we to credit all the marvellous accounts which 

 the ancient n.aturaliils have given, of the venom lodged 

 in the armour of this fiTn, we would unavoidably dread 

 it, as an animal ftill more formidable than the torpedo ^. 

 The weapon in which nature is fuid to have lodged this 



poifon, 



* Britifli Zool. f Ariftot. Kift. animal. 



I De piaiLus. § Vide Ichthyol. p. 80. 



]| Paftinaca marina Ixvl.^, Will. La Pari:cn:ide dc mer. EeIo:;» 



^ Pliny, Ellian, and Opiam. 



