HAIRTAIL. 63 



and thin; tail long, slender, pointed, and without a fin; above 

 and below sharp. Vent much nearer the head than the tail; 

 opening of the mouth cut far back, but not caj^able of being 

 thrown very wide. Lower jaw pointed, longer than the upper; 

 nostril single, open, nearer the eye than the snout; eyes rather 

 large, nearer the snout than to the border of the gill-covers, 

 which latter are oblong. Gill-openings very wide, reaching 

 nearly up to the end of the lower jaw. Teeth in a single 

 row, of irregular height and distribution; lateral line wide, 

 beginning on the upper border of the gill-cover, but bending 

 down towards the pectoral fin, and thence straight backwards. 

 Dorsal fin very long, beginning at the back of the head, and 

 ending without aj^proaching the extremity of the body. In 

 place of an anal fin, from the vent backward, a number of 

 slender points, of which those behind are directed forward, and 

 those nearest the vent are directed backward. The tail is long 

 and slender, compressed, and pointed. 



The example we have the pleasure of introducing to the 

 notice of the reader, and of which our figure is the only 

 representation that has been derived from an undoubted British 

 specimen, was thrown on shore on the sand of the Whitsand 

 Bay, near the Land's End, in Cornwall, in the month of April, 

 1853; and was only defective in the loss of that slender portion 

 which was behind the dorsal fin, and which appeared to have 

 been bitten oflT. Exclusive of this it measured about two feet 

 three inches; depth at the pectoral fin two inches; at the 

 termination about five eighths of an inch; from the point of 

 the under jaw to the vent twelve inches and a half; thus 

 remarkably distinguishing it from the example described by 

 Mr. Hoy, where in a fish three feet two inches in length the 

 vent was distant only two inches from the gills. From the 

 point of the upper jaw to the eye two inches and a quarter; 

 the eye large, high on the side of the head; under jaw longest, 

 slit of the mouth far back. Teeth long, irregular, scattered, 

 locking together; one at the extremity of the lower jaw prom- 

 inent, and not received into the mouth. Border of the gill- 

 cover running back into a pointed oval, five inches and six 

 eighths from the point of the snout. Lateral line begins high 

 over the gill- covers, and descends gradually at about the end 

 of the pectoral fin; from thence straight to the tail. Pectoral 



