160 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Incredible though it may seem to the scientific mind, 

 a notice of this specimen appeared in the " Shetland News " 

 of 6th June, in which it is stated that " The animal appears 

 to be a specimen of the Hippocampus, a genus of Lophobranch 

 fishes, . . . but so far as is known this is the largest specimen 

 which has ever been found here." Fancy a Hippocampus of 

 over 6 feet in length ! But the worst of it was that the 

 notice was accompanied by a sketch apparently taken from 

 some engraving of an actual Hippocampus, with two altera- 

 tions, namely the proper dorsal fin being replaced by a 

 ragged contour, and the spiral enrolment of the tail being 

 altered to a serpentine curve. And this drawing is actually 

 given in the " Shetland News " as a representation of the 

 fish which was cast ashore at Lunasting ! The only com- 

 ment that can be made on the matter is that if accuracy is 

 so little valued in some quarters at the present day, need we 

 wonder at the strange tales and pictures of fabulous animals 

 which have come down to us from the past, and the, to say 

 the least of it, highly improbable things which we are often 

 at the present day asked to believe. 



IV. THE DEAL-FISH IN ORKNEY. 

 By JAMES W. CURSITER, F.S.A. 



The Orcadian Seas seem to be the most favoured waters 

 for the occurrence of British specimens of this very beautiful 

 and rare fish, and a few notes upon the latest example may 

 be worthy of record in your pages. Most of the information 

 hitherto available has been derived from second-hand sources ; 

 the few remarks I have to furnish you with (however in- 

 complete) are based upon an examination of the fish in 

 possibly as fair a state of preservation as has ever been 

 possible in this country. 



Upwards of a dozen specimens have been recorded from 

 Orkney, but I am not aware of any specimen being obtained 

 here within the last half century, or, more correctly, since 

 1851. 



On the ist of April last I was met by Mr. David Milne 



