214 RIBAND-SHAPED. 



fins had not faded, nor had the membrane connecting the fin- 

 rays been torn ; only the anterior dorsal and the ventral fins 

 were injured, so as to leave but short roots ; the continuation 

 of which is therefore indicated by fine lines. 



A previous account of this, as well as of another less per- 

 fect specimen, found thrown on shore near Frederickshavn in 

 Jutland, was laid before the Royal Society of Copenhagen 

 in the winter of 1829. As I have not been able to procure 

 a better specimen, says the author, and a useful delineation 

 of this fish is wanted, while AVC, through the figures given 

 by M. Valenciennes, are enabled to compare several species 

 from the Mediterranean, I have thought it right to supply 

 this deficiency by having an engraving made under my own 

 superintendence of the Icelandic Vaagmaer, to the descrip- 

 tion of which the following paper is devoted. 



The result of the account of the two specimens above 

 mentioned, as communicated in 1829 to the Royal Society, 

 was, that the Northern Vaagmaer, contrary to the opinion 

 of its former describers, is indeed provided with ventral fins, 

 by which its generic relation to those of the Mediterranean 

 has been decided, as well as its systematic rank : Avhile a 

 comparison with one of the Mediterranean species preserved 

 in the Museum, established its specific difference. 



M. Valenciennes, in his excellent account of the genus 

 Trachypterus in his tenth volume, has added a few remarks 

 to the previous history. Although the specimen he examined 

 was dried and partly defective, the relative dimensions and 

 the number of the dorsal rays nevertheless agree. Some dif- 

 ference between the short description of M. Valenciennes 

 and that which follows, will be pointed out hereafter. 



The body of the Vaagmaer is compressed, or sword-blade 

 like throughout more than half of its own length, or, in 

 the present specimen, from the occiput to within eleven 

 inches of the caudal extremity of the dorsal column ; the 



