Each spine--clear opal blue--is surrounded by a sac of
colourless liquid (presumed to contain the poisonous element), which
squirts out as the spine is unsheathed. On the sides, and in lesser
numbers on the belly, are irregular rows of miniature craters which on
being depressed eject, to a distance of a foot or more, a liquid
resembling in colour milk with a tinge of lavender. Fast on the points
of a spear the fish gives an occasional and violent spasmodic jerk, when
the prettily tinted liquid is ejected from all the little cones. After a
pause, during which it seems to concentrate its energies, there is
another and another twitch, each the means of sprinkling broadcast what
is said to be a corrosive liquid, almost as virulent as vitriol. From
almost any part of the body this liquid exudes or can be expelled.
With its upturned cavernous mouth (interiorly a forbidding sickly
green), its spines, its cones, its eruptions, its ejecta, its great
fan-shaped pectoral fins, and its deformities generally, the stone
fish well deserves the specific title of HORRIDA. Moreover, has it
not a gift which would have brought it to the stake a few score
years ago, as a sinful, presumptuous and sacrilegious witch--that
of living for an hour or two out of its natural element.
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