[ 47 ° ] 
taken about five years fince in Mount’s Bay in Corn- 
wall. The particulars, as they were lately collected 
by Mr. Scobell of Penzance, from the fifherman 
who took it, are thefe: “ that he judged it on me- 
“Jmory to have weighed about forty pounds, and to 
“ have been about three feet long and two and a half 
“ broad ; that its fkin was fmcoth like an eel, dark- 
“ brown on the back, and white underneath ; and 
“ that it had been caught with a large hook, in the 
** month of March, on fandy ground.” 
For the fake of Oppian’s fine defcription of the 
capture of the Torpedo, which Claudian has elegantly 
paraphrafed, and which you, flruck with the paffage, 
have rendered in Englifh metre, I am glad the Tor- 
pedo is found to take the hook. That defcription, 
though thought to have been fabulous, proves to be no 
lefsjuft in each circumftance, than, as it was always 
confeffed to be, poetically beautiful in the whole. 
But to catch with the greateft fuccefsthe Torpedo, 
as well as other flat fifh, which keep near the 
ground, the trawl, or drag-net, muff be ufed. This 
kind of fifhing is much praftifed in Torbay; but in 
Mount’s Bay, as I am informed, not yet adopted ; 
which may be the chief reafon why the Torpedo has 
but feldom been taken at the one, and fo very fre- 
quently at the other place. 
I had an opportunity laft autumn of making a 
fhort vifit to Dungarvan in Ireland, where Smith in 
his Hiftory of Waterford, as you have remarked, men- 
tions a Torpedo of fix or eight pounds to have been 
found about thirty years fince. The fifhery there, 
which is very confiderable, is whofly carried on 
with hook and line, and the fifhermen were entire 
Grangers to the Torpedo. But at Ring, a fifhing 
village 
