With regard to their dietical ufes, thefe fifties are very 
different ; fome of them affording a plentiful fupply of 
falubrious food, while others are noxious and terrible ; 
■with refpeft, however, to their nature, appetites and 
conformation, the fimilitude among them is perfect and 
entire. 
Of all the larger filh, the rays are the moil numerous ; 
and their numbers are in a great meafure Owing to their 
fize, and to the proteflion of thofe frightful fpines which 
■nature has afforded them. There is none of the rapaci- 
ous tribes, except, perhaps, the cachalot and white fhark, 
that has a fwallow fufficiently large to receive them ; 
and even thefe are, probably, often deterred from their 
purpofes of deft ru£t ion by the armour with which their 
prey is covered *. Of fome the fize is fuch as to defy all 
the powers of deftruftion which even the ihark himfelf 
is known to poffefs: In England fome have been taken 
upwards of two hundred pounds weight ; but that is far 
inferior to their enormous bulk in other parts of the 
world. Near the ifland of Guadeloupe in the IVeJl In- 
dies, a ray was killed, thirteen feet eight inches in 
breadth, aud twenty-five from the fnout to the tip of the 
tail. This member itfelf contributed largely to this pro- 
digious dimenfion ; for it was twenty inches broad at its 
infertion, and tapered to a point, by which it terminated 
fifteen feet behind the body of the animalf. 
The fifties of this genus probably attain to a much 
larger fize, than that of any individual that has ever yet 
been examined : It is only the fmalleft of the kind that 
approach the fiiores ; the larger continue forever prowling 
*■ 
Jr. ... 
* Goldfmith’s Nat. f LaV.ft. 
