Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-09-12
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TO drive horses into Die bayedsSw where
they are known 70 be pisra4ftt The
cells attack the horses and quickly ex-
baust their batteries When they are
powerless to do any further electrocu-
ton they are speared by the natives.
Not infrequently horses are lost In this
manner of fishing
Now the eel is not the only fish to
be safeguarded by powerful electric
batteries. There is the torpedo ray. or
skate, which looks like a three-cornered
Kite with long tail, equally dangerous
to handle without rubber gloves There
are also several quite unrelated fishes
which possess the extraordinary prop
erty of communicating an electric shock
to animals with which they come in
contact.
In all cases the electrical organs are
notifications of muscular tissues look
ing like a mass of closely packed
prisms, each divided into a series of
compartments filled with gelatinous
substance The whole is like group
of voitaic piles. }staa N rh54A5
The electric ray has its batteries To-
Gated near the. head and supplied with
energy from large nerves proceeding
from the brain. 1t is an ugly customer
and can give much trouble as the
electric eel; man getting shock
from a large specimen will remember
! II for long time if it doesn't kill him
outright. Even the little rays can give
quite shock when molested in any
way, The electric ray is member Of
the skate family and most skates can
produce more or less electricity. but tho
ray is the only one which is dangerous
/ to handle.
| Then there is the electric catfish
from the Nile which carries around a
] powerful storage battery concealed IN
der its skin next to the muscles. This
battery is a layer or blanket of. cleo
tric cells covering most of the body.
! The current can be discharged at will
and it is quite powerful but, as the
fish never attains huge proportions. Its
current is never dangerous to anything
except small animals.
While all those fish mentioned above
are capable of producing electricity for
hunting and defensive purposes not one
of them utilizes the current for electric
lighting. And yet, strange as it may
seem, there are plenty of fishes. who
do use electricity produced by Them
, selves, for this very purpose
Not until recently nas7 any attempt
been made to investigate the life Of
the deeper parts of the ocean. But the
| travis and drag nets suspended a mile
| under the water. where IL is necessa-
riiy total darkness all the time, reveal
a multitude of small fishes each
equipped with an electric light With
out this light, of course, they would
| be unable to see at all at that great
depth where the sunlight can never
penetrate. The nets bring up a host
of these small fishes and in nearly. ev-
cry case they are equipped with tho
brightest eyes and little individual Lam
terms to light their way along the. dark
pathways of the deep
No man knows just how the cleo
tricity for this lisat IS prod ICED but
it is there nevertheless The deep sea
fish are of many strange shapes and,
in most of them, the lamps are sus-
i pended at the ends of long feeler, and
can be turned on or Off at will. Pre-
sumably when the fish wants to go on
a visit or a hunt for food he just turns
on his lamp and starts out. When he
wants to rest he seeks some secluded
corner in the rocks and turns out the
light, sleeping in comfort and safety
un.-- he is hungry again.
There are many other animals, in
scots and bugs which can produce more
or less electricity but in such feeble
and limited amounts. that they are hard
ly worth mentioning in this article. OF
course everyone is familiar with the
common lightning bug which can pro-
duce brilliant glow of heatless light
at will.