32 FIRE! FIRE!! FIRE!!! 



fins would not serve him just as well for swimming. He prefers 

 warm water to cold, so he lives in the tropical seas, swimming 

 about the coasts of India, Africa, and Australia. The natives of 

 Ceylon call him Gini-maha, and they think he is very good to eat. 



They take great care in catching him, for they are very much 

 afraid of him, thinking that his sharj) spines are poisoned, and can 

 inflict a deadly wound. But in this they are too hard upon the 

 poor fellow. He can prick them deeply and painfully, and he will 

 if they meddle with him; but he is a perfectly respectable fish, and 

 would not think of such a cowardly thing as poisoning anybody. 



