of Fishes found in Cornwall. 91 
pectoral and ventral fins are very large; the former are 
flat, and both have near their extremities a number of 
spines. The two dorsal fins are placed far behind; the 
lobes of the tail are equal and lunated. There are five 
spiracula; the eyes are very small, and the nictitating mem- 
brane, which is of the colour of the common skin, contracts 
over the eye, leaving a linear pupil. The body is slightly 
rough, of a sandy-brown colour; the under-parts white. 
It is about five feet long, and keeps near the bottom. 
Tope. Sq. galeus.—I think this is the species which is by the 
fishermen denominated the White Hound ; if so, it is very 
prolific, as thirty young ones have been taken from the 
belly of a single female. 
Smooth Hound. Sg. Mustelus.—This keeps i near the bottom, 
and feeds chiefly on crustaceous animals, which its blunt 
teeth are well calculated to crush. 
Basking Shark. Sq. mazimus.—A fish of this species, taken at 
Penryn in 1809, measured thirty-one feet in length, eight 
feet and a half high, and nineteen feet round; the mouth 
was five feet and a half wide; the extent of the tail six feet- 
nine inches ; the weight eight tons. 
Porbeagle. Sq. cornubicus.—This fish rarely takes a bait; yet it 
is not uncommon, and hunts its prey in companies; from 
which circumstance it has received its common name. 
There are in the possession of William Rashleigh, Esq. 
of Menabilly, a drawing and memorandum of a fish of this 
genus, which I am not able to refer to any known species ; 
it was twenty-nine feet four inches long, twenty-four feet 
round, the fork of the tail seven feet, and the weight four 
‘tons; in the drawing, the eye is in front, under a snout 
that projects and is turned upward ; the mouth is two feet 
and a half wide. The head is deep; the first dorsal fin 
N 2 much 
