Beware of the stone fish (SYNANCEIA HORRIDA), the death adder of the sea, called also the sea-devil, because of its malice; the warty ghoul because, perhaps, of its repulsiveness; the lion fish, because of its habit of lurking in secret places; the sea scorpion for its venom; and by the blacks “Mee-hee.”  Loathsome, secretive, inert, rough and jagged in outline, wearing tufts and sprays of seaweed on its back, scarcely to be distinguished from the rocks among which it lurks, it is armed with spines steeped in the cruelest venom.  Many fish are capable of inflicting painful and even dangerous wounds, but none is to be more dreaded than the ugly and repulsive “stone fish.”  Haply, it is comparatively rare.  Conceal itself as it may among the swaying seaweed as it lies in ambush ready to seize its prey, or partially bury itself in the mud, it seldom eludes the shrewd observation of the blacks.  With a grunt of satisfaction it is impaled with a fish-spear and placed squirming on a rock to be battered to pulp with its prototype—­a stone.  Utter destruction is the invariable fate of any stone fish detected in these waters, the belief of the blacks being that in default fatal effects follow a wound.  But a black who suffers the rare chance of contact fortifies his theoretical cure of pulverising the offending fish by immersing the injured foot or hand in running water for a whole day, the popular treatment for all venomous wounds.  As to the effect of the wound they say, “Suppose that fella nail go along your foot, you sing out all a same bullocky all night.  Leg belonga you swell up and jump about?  Bingie (belly) belonga you, sore fella.  Might you die.”  One boy described the detested creature—­“That fella like stone.  Head belonga him no good—­all hole.”  A graphic way of detailing a rugged depression in the head, which conveys the idea that the bones have been staved in by a blow with a hammer.

The stone fish resembles in character and habits the death adder.  Its disposition is pacific, it has no forwardness of temper; is never willing to obtrude itself on notice, trusting to immobility and to its similitude to the grey rocks and mud and brown alga to escape detection.  Unless it is actually handled or inadvertently trodden upon, it is as innocent and as harmless as a canary.  Why then should it be furnished with such dreadful weapons of offence?  A full dozen of the keenest of spines, all in a row, extend from the depression at the back of the head towards the tail, each spine hidden in a jagged and uneven fringe, which, when the fish is in its natural element, can scarcely be distinguished from seaweed.  Not until the warty ghoul acquires the sagacity which accompanies ripe age and experience, does it encourage deceptive plumes of innocent algae to anchor themselves to its back.  Then it is that detection is beyond ordinary skill, and its presence fraught with danger.  In a specimen 8 inches long, the first spine, counting from the head, can be exposed half an inch, the second