Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/552

536 has great muscular power in the tail, and is able to whirl it about in any direction it may desire, it not unfrequently deals forth most savage retribution to its captors. It knows full well, too, how to direct its aim, and it is told of some of the members of this family that, if a hand, or even a finger, be laid upon the fish, it can, by a single turn of the tail, transfix with its spine the offending member. So dangerous are the consequences of these wounds, that it is customary (and in France and Italy it is made compulsory by law on the fishermen) to cut off the tails above the spines of the fish thus armed before they are brought to market; and in this way almost the only specimen of the Eagle Ray (Myliobatis aquila) ever captured alive in this country was mutilated; so that the specimen was useless. The Picked Dogfish is also provided with two short, sharp spines—one on each dorsal fin. Many other fish are furnished with spines, either upon the fins or as horns, or in sharp projections from the gill-covers. The spines of the Greater and Lesser Weaver inflict most painful wounds, and cause such agony that it is commonly reported they are in some way venomous. This has been denied, and demonstrated to be impossible; yet it seems difficult to account for the following facts upon any other hypothesis. Sir W. Jardine, in speaking of the greater weaver, says:

Again, in treating of the lesser weaver, "If trodden on by bathers, as frequently happens, it inflicts," says Dr. Parnell, "a severe and painful wound, causing the part to swell and almost immediately to assume a dark-brown appearance, which remains for five or six hours."

In the teeth of the confident assertion of great authorities it would be rash to say that any poisonous secretion exists. But, if the above facts be quoted as proofs or instances of the absence of venom, they would appear to be singularly infelicitous ones.

Perhaps one of the most formidable weapons possessed by any fish is the natural and terrible pair of shears formed by the jaws of the Shark. The only parallel weapon of offence that can be cited as used by man would, perhaps, be the spiked portcullis, but the future may