A TORPEDO AT ONE END OF THE LINE. 147 
A TORPEDO AT ONE END OF 
THE LINE 
To the fisherman—whether belonging to the genus 
angler proper, or to the successors of those who once let 
down their nets into the Lake of Gennesereth—there 
can be little doubt that sport is one of the principal 
attractions of his craft, and his sport may be pro- 
nounced of the most harmless as well as the most 
amusing kind; but whether the following can be 
termed harmless to those who were engaged in it, is 
left to the judgment of the reader, to whom also will 
probably be confined the amusement to be obtained 
in the adventure itself which I have to relate. The 
fishermen concerned in it had too little enjoyment in 
what they met with to be desirous of experiencing a 
repetition of it, although when all is past the story 
may be related with some degree of glee. 
It is to be supposed that the general habits and 
also the special faculties of the more common species 
of the Torpedo, emphatically called in English the 
Cramp Ray, are well known ; as they were in very 
ancient times in the Mediterranean, where this fish 
