Observations on the Lancelot. 383 



little bruised on the side. No other evidence than the place 

 and circumstances in which they were found, was necessary 

 to convince me that their residence had been in the ground 

 of the harbour, at no great distance from the spot where they 

 lay. 



A minute and frequently-repeated examination of the more 

 perfect specimen above referred to, has enabled me to add 

 the following remarks to what is already known of the struc- 

 ture of this fish ; and that some further particulars were not 

 ascertained, must be ascribed to my wish not to injure the 

 specimen, that it might be presented, according to a promise 

 formerly made, to the national collection in the British 

 Museum. 



That process of the cartilaginous skeleton which may be 

 judged to answer to a cranial vertebra, passes from the first 

 cervical to the anterior extremity; and after the specimen had 

 lain for a day or two in a weak mixture of spirit and water, I 

 could discern in that part some slight marks of separation, as 

 if the vertebral structure existed, but less decidedly than be- 

 hind. The number of lines that may be judged to mark the 

 number of vertebra, was sixty ; and between each and the 

 next were five perpendicular fin rays, with two or three an- 

 terior to the first line. The anal fin has these rays also, but 

 they become shorter, and then disappear, in both the dorsal 

 and anal fin, at about one fifth of the whole length from the 

 tail ; beyond which the structure of the fin is that of a sim- 

 ple membrane, as in the corresponding part of a lamprey. I 

 was not able to count the number of these fin-rays, but their 

 structure appeared to be of a most extraordinary nature ; not 

 rising from a single root, as in most fishes, but standing in 

 the form of a transverse bow or arch, the curve forming the 

 support of the fin, while the pillars rest on what probably will 

 be found to be two somewhat transverse spinal processes.— 

 These rays are raised or depressed but little, and in a longi- 

 tudinal direction ; and the fin, when not greatly expanded, 

 has the appearance of being thick, so far as these rays extend. 



The tendrils of the mouth are represented in Mr. Yarrell's 

 figure ; but in their natural position in this specimen, they 

 appeared to cross each other at the orifice, and to lie along 

 the cheeks and fauces in a direction obliquely forward, as re- 

 presented in the figure at the end of this article, (Jig. 19). 

 After a few days these fibres hung dependant externally, from 

 the jaws or sides of the mouth. I counted ten of them, but 

 there might be one or two more. 



The abdominal cavity was long and narrow, and without 

 any mark of the grains or ova so conspicuous in the first spe- 



Vol. II. — No. 19. n. s. mm 



