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to the surface by thousands. As no one dares to 
bathe where this fish is to be found, the caribito may 
be considered as one of the greatest scourges of 
those climates in which the sting of the musquitoes 
and the general irritation of the skin render the use 
of the bath so necessary.” The trachinus or weaver 
inflicts severe wounds with a strong spine in front 
of its dorsal fin, which cause inflammation, supposed 
to be the result of poison. A species of perch is 
called perca venenosa for the same reason. -' The 
raia pastinaca, or sting-ray, has a long serrated 
spine on the fore part of the tail, which is a for- 
midable weapon of defence: it is shed, and renewed 
annually ; and is believed by fishermen to instil a 
poison into its wound. 
The genera and species of fish which subsist 
wholly by preying on other fish, and even the young 
of their own kind, are very numerous. 
The peculiar weapon of the gymnotus electricus 
and the torpedo ray is in its effect allied to poison. 
Mr. Humboldt states the shock from the electric eel 
to be equal to that from the largest Leyden jar. 
His description of the capture of wild horses and of 
the eels, by the hunters driving the horses into pools 
filled with the eels, where the horses are stunned by 
electric shocks from the eels, and the eels exhausted 
by the discharge of their internal batteries, has been 
repeated too often to need further repetition. 
Not a few of the amphibia are useful to man as 
food. Foremost in these ranks comes the turtle, 
testudo mydas. His shell. and that of his congener, 
