Some years ago two Malays in the vicinity of Cairns partook
of the flesh and died in consequence. No black will handle the fish, and
a dog which may hunt one in shallow water and mouth it, partakes of a
prompt and violent emetic. Blacks are very careful to avoid touching it
with anything shorter than a fish-spear, being of opinion that the
poison resides in or on the skin, and that the flesh becomes impregnated
when the skin is broken.
The balloon fish is toothless, the jaws resembling the beak of a turtle,
and in some species both the upper and the lower jaws have medial
sutures like those of a snake. Was there not a Roman statesman or
warrior whose jaws were fitted with a consolidated and continuous
structure of ivory instead of the ordinary separate teeth?
The balloon fish depends upon its inconspicuousness and harmony with its
environment in the struggle for existence, for, no doubt, there are in
the sea fish so strong of stomach as to accept it without a spasm. It
will allow a boat to be paddled over it as it floats--a brown
balloon--almost motionless in the water without evincing alarm, but it
makes a commotion enough for a dozen when a spear is fast in its back.
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