Dr. SHAW’s Defeription of the Stylephorus. 91 
The roftrum, or narrow part which is terminated by the mouth, is 
connected to the back part of the head by a flexible leathery 
duplicature, which permits it either to be extended in fuch a manner 
that the mouth points directly upwards, or to fall back fo as to be 
received into a fort of cafe, formed by the upper part of the head. 
On the top of the head are placed the eyes, which are of a form 
very nearly approaching to thofe of the genus Cancer, except that 
the columns, or parts on which each eye is placed, are much 
broader or thicker than in that genus. They are alfo placed clofe 
to each other; and the outward furface of the eye, when magnified, 
does not íhew the leaft appearance of a reticulated ftruéture. 
The colour of the eyes, as well as of the columns on which they 
ftand, is a clear cheftnut brown, with a fort of coppery glofs. 
Below the head, on each fide, is a confiderable compreffed femi- 
circular fpace, the fore part of which is bounded by the covering of 
the gills, which feems to confift of a fingle membrane of a mode- 
rately {trong nature. Beneath this, on each fide, are three fmall 
pair of branchiæ. The body is extremely long, and compreffed 
very much, and gradually diminifhes as it approaches the tail, which 
terminates in a procefs or ftring of an enormous length, and finifhes 
in a very fine point. This ftring, or caudal procefs, feems to be 
ftrengthened throughout its whole length, or at leaft as far as the 
eye can trace it, by a fort of double fibre or internal part. The 
pectoral fins are very fmall, and fituated almoft immediately behind 
the cavity on each fide the thorax. "The dorfal fin, which is of a 
thin and foft nature, runs from the head to within about an inch 
and a half of the tail, when it feems fuddenly to terminate, and a 
bare fpace is left of about a quarter of an inch; I am however not 
altogether without my doubts whether it might not in the living 
animal have run on quite to the tail, and whether the fpecimen 
might not have received fome injury in that part. From this place 
N 2 com- 
