frightened the shark away. The young man was brought on shore. Dr. Mosely was called to him; but he had lost so much blood before any assistance could be given him, that he expired before the mangled limbs could be taken off. A few weeks before this, a shark of twelve feet in length was caught in the harbour; and on being opened, the entire head of a man was found in his stomach. The scalp and flesh of the face were macerated to a soft pulpy substance; which, on being touched, separated entirely from the bones. The bones were somewhat softened, and the sutures loosened.--(Moseley on Tropical Diseases.)

A very extraordinary instance of intrepidity and friendship is given by M. Hughes, in his Natural History of Barbadoes. It happened about the end of Queen Anne's wars, at Barbadoes. The sailors of the York Merchant, having ventured into the sea to wash themselves, a large shark made towards them; upon which they swam back, and all reached the boat except one, whom the monster overtook, and, griping him by the small of his back, soon cut him asunder, and swallowed the lower part of his body; the remaining part was taken up and carried on board, where was a comrade of the deceased, between whom friendship had been long reciprocal. When he saw the severed trunk of his friend, with a horror and emotion too great for words to paint, he vowed that he would make the devourer disgorge, or be swallowed himself in the same grave, and plunged into the deep, armed with a sharppointed knife. The shark no sooner saw him, than he made furiously toward him: both were equally eager, the one of his prey, the other of revenge. The moment the shark opened his rapacious jaws, his adversary dexterously diving, and grasping him with his left hand somewhat below the upper fins, successfully employed his knife in his right hand, giving him repeated stabs in the belly. The enraged shark, after many unavailing efforts, finding himself overmatched in his own element, endeavoured to disengage himself, sometimes plunging to the bottom, then, mad with pain, rearing his uncouth form, now stained with his own streaming blood, above the foaming waves. The crews of the surrounding vessels saw the doubtful combat, uncertain from which of the combatants the streams of blood issued; till at length the shark, much weakened by the loss of blood, made towards the shore, and with him his conqueror; who, now assured of victory, pushed his foe with redoubled ardour, and, by the help of an ebbing tide, dragged him on shore, ripped up his bowels, and united and buried the severed carcase of his friend.

"It is evident, (says Dr. Moseley,) that digestion in these animals is not performed by trituration, nor by the muscular action of the stomach; though nature has furnished them

with a stomach of wonderful force and thickness, and far exceeding that of any other creature. Whatever their force of digestion is, it has no effect upon their young ones, which always retreat into their stomachs in time of danger. That digestion is not performed by heat in fish, is equally evident. The coolness of the stomach of these fishes is far greater than the temperature of the water out of which they are taken; or of any other part of the fish, or of any other substance of animated nature I ever felt. On wrapping one of them round my hand, immediately on being taken out of the fish, it caused so much aching and numbness that I could not endure it long. Of these voracious sea monsters, there are thirty three species."

THE TORPEDO.-The torpedo inhabits the Mediterranean and the North Seas, and grows to the weight of twenty pounds This fish possesses a strong electrical power, and is capable of giving a very considerable shock through a number of persons forming a communication with it. This power was known to the ancients, but exaggerated by them with all the fables natural to ignorance; and it is only recently that the power has been ascertained to be truly electric. It is conducted by the same substances as electricity, and intercepted by the same. In a minute and a half, no fewer than fifty shocks have been received from this animal, when insulated. The shocks delivered by it in air, are nearly four times as strong as those received from it in water. This power appears to be always voluntarily exercised by the torpedo, which oc casionally may be touched and handled without its causing the slightest agitation. When the fish is irritated, however, this quality is exercised with proportional effect to the degree of irritation; and its exercise is stated, in every instance, to be accompanied by a depression of the eyes. When that animal exerts the benumbing power, from which it derives its name, and when it operates by separate and repeated efforts, this is always the case. Both in the continued, and in the instantaneous process, the eyes, which are at other times prominent, are withdrawn into their sockets; a circumstance very naturally attaching both to the condensation and discharge of the subtle fluid. Specimens have been known of this fish weigh ing fifty, and even eighty pounds. It commonly lies in forty fathoms of water, and is supposed to stupify its prey by this extraordinary faculty. It is sometimes nearly imbedded in the sands of shallows; and it is stated, in these cases, to give to any who happens to tread upon it, an astonishing and overwhelming shock. On dissection, it was found to exhibit no material difference from the general structure of the ray, excepting with respect to the electric or galvanic organs,

which have been minutely examined and detailed by the celebrated anatomist, John Hunter: he states them to be placed on each side of the cranium and gills, reaching thence to each great fin, and extending longitudinally from the anterior extremity of the animal, to the transverse cartilage which divides the thorax from the abdomen."

From the whole description, it appears that these organs, as Mr. Shaw observes, constitute a pair of galvanic batteries, disposed in the form of perpendicular hexagonal columus; while, in the gymnotus electricus, the galvanic battery is disposed lengthwise on the lower part of the animal. It is stated, that the torpedo, in its dying state, communicates shocks in more than usually rapid succession, but in proportional weakness; and in seven minutes, in these circumstances, three hundred and sixty small shocks were distinctly felt. On the same authority (that of Spallanzani) it is reported, that the young torpedo can exercise this power at the moment after its birth, and even possesses it while a foetus, several of these having been taken from the parent fish, and being found to communicate perceivable shocks, which, however, were most distinctly felt when these animals were insulated on a plate of glass.

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A very curious object is, THE AIR-BLADDER IN FISHES.There is no doubt that fishes extract air from water by means of their gills, since it is through them that they renew the air of their air-bladder. This bladder is an oblong bag, consisting of two or three membranes easily separated; sometimes it has only a single lobe or cavity, as in the case of pikes, whitings, trouts, &c.; at other times it has two lobes, as in the case of barbel and carp; three, as in that of the sea tench; or four, as in the Chinese gold fish. It is by expanding or compressing this bladder, that the fish occupies more or less space in the water, becomes more or less heavy, and ascends or descends as it chooses. The division of the bladder into different lobes has proceeded from a very sufficient reason. When the bladder has only one cavity, as in the case of fishes of prey, the motion of ascent or descent takes place slowly, and without a break; because, as they compress the whole bladder at once, the whole body is moved horizontally, upwards or downwards, as the case may be; a circumstance which has the effect of lessening, in consequence of the resistance of the water, the swiftness of those tyrants of the deep. When the bladder has two lobes, as in the case of the carp, which lives on insects, that fish, by expanding the anterior and compressing the posterior lobe, rises rapidly with the head foremost to the surface of the water, or sinks to the bottom with equal expedition, by compressing its two lobes in different ways. The consequence is,