CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 351 



health, but a tolerably large fish in good health, can, for the time, 

 disable a strong man. From the effects of its shook, it is in some 

 parts called the Cramp-fish. 



Colonel Montagu notices a Torpedo caught on a turbot line, 

 at Tucky. It weighed about one hundred pounds, and completely 

 puzzled the fisherman, who found it hanging dead on the hooks, 

 and had never seen such a creature before. Colonel Montacu 

 quaintly remarks, that had it not been dead, the fisherman would 

 certainly have had a shock that would have made him remember 

 the species again. 



A section of the out shows the batteries of the fish, which 

 are composed of a large number of tubes pressed together like the 

 cells of a honey-comb, and filled with a very thick fluid. By means 

 of a nerve branching out from the brain to the battery, the animal 

 can work it whenever it pleases. 



The Thornback Skate derives its name from the spiny 

 armature of the tail, with which the fish defends itself most vigor- 

 ously by bending itself almost into a semicircle and lashing about 

 with its tail. The female of the Thornback Skate is termed a 

 Maid. It often attains to a large size, the largest known being 

 twelve feet in length, and nearly ten in width. 



The Lamprey. — These curious fishes, in many respects the 

 lowest in organization of the vertebrate animals, are chiefly remark- 

 able for the singular construction of the mouth, which, formed like 

 that of the leech, enables the Lampreys to hold firmly to any object 

 by suction. The breathing apparatus appears externally to consist of 

 fourteen small apertures, seven on each side of the neck. Their 

 progress through the water is accomplished by a rapid undulating 

 movement. 



The Marine Lamprey is found in the Mediterranean, and 

 in most of the northern European rivers. It has also been disco- 

 vered in America. Like many other fishes, it travels for many 

 miles up rivers for the purpose of depositing its spawn, at which 

 time it is considered to be in the highest perfection. The spawn is 

 deposited in furrows, some excavated by the parent Lampreys, who. 

 by the help of their sucker-like mouths, rapidly remove even large 

 stones. 



