VAAGMAER. 213 



were sufficiently acquainted with it to induce a belief that 

 they had even eaten it. Most of the specimens, varying in 

 size from one to six feet, were driven on shore by bad 

 weather. 



Olafscn, in his Voyage to Iceland, states that this fish is 

 rare even in Iceland : it seems to approach the shore at flood- 

 tide, in those places where the bottom is sandy and the shore 

 not steep, and where it remains till left dry. The inha- 

 bitants, he adds, consider the fish as poisonous, because the 

 ravens will not eat it. 



The publication of the History of British Fishes has 

 brought me into communication with Professor John Rein- 

 hardt, Curator of the Royal Museum, and also of the Uni- 

 versity Museum at Copenhagen. This gentleman, desirous 

 of supplying the deficiency, both as to figure and description, 

 which existed at the time of publishing the account of the 

 Vaagmaer, or Dealfish, British Fishes, vol. i. p. 191, has 

 very obligingly forwarded to me a copy of his memoir, 

 printed in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Copen- 

 hagen, containing a detailed account and a figure of this fish, 

 from a specimen obtained in Iceland. By the kindness of 

 Dr. Cantor, the friend and countryman of M. Reinhardt, I 

 am enabled to present a free translation of so much of this 

 Danish paper as refers to the description of this very rare 

 fish, with a reduced figure from the plate which accompanied 

 the memoir. 



The specimen of the Vaagmaer, from which the drawing 

 and descriptions were taken, was during the summer of 1 828 

 thrown up alive on the beach near Thorshavn in Iceland, and 

 was procured by Mr. M oiler for the Royal Museum of 

 Natural History. Fortunately, a ship at the time was ready 

 to sail for Copenhagen, by which the fish, preserved in spi- 

 rits, was forwarded. It arrived in about ten days, and in 

 such beautiful condition that the brilliant red colour of the 



