of Fishes found in Cornwall. Q\ 



pectoral and ventral fins are very large; the former are 

 flat, and both have near their extremities a number of 

 spines. The two dorsal fins are placed far behind; the 

 lobes of the tail are equal and lunated. There are five 

 spiracula; the eyes are very small, and the nictitating mem- 

 brane, which is of the colour of the common skin, contracts 

 over the eye, leaving a linear pupil. The body is slightly 

 rough, of a sandy-brown colour; the under-parts white. 

 It is about five feet long, and keeps near the bottom. 



Tope. Sq. galeus. — I think this is the species which is by the 

 fishermen denominated the White Hound ; if so, it is very 

 prolific, as thirty young ones have been taken from the 

 belly of a single female. 



Smooth Hound. Sq. Mustelus. — This keeps near the bottom, 

 and feeds chiefly on crustaceous animals, which its blunt 

 teeth are well calculated to crush. 



Basking Shark. Sq. maximus. — A fish of this species, taken at 

 Penryn in 1809, measured thirty-one feet in length, eight 

 feet and a half high, and nineteen feet round ; the mouth 

 was five feet and a half wide ; the extent of the tail six feet 

 nine inches ; the weight eight tons. 



Porbeagle. Sq. cornubicus. — This fish rarely takes a bait; yet it 

 is not uncommon, and hunts its prey in companies ; from 

 which circumstance it has received its common name. 



There are in the possession of William Rashleigh, Esq. 

 of Menabilly, a drawing and memorandum of a fish of this 

 genus, which I am not able to refer to any known species ; 

 it was twenty-nine feet four inches long, twenty-four feet 

 round, the fork of the tail seven feet, and the weight four 

 tons ; in the drawing, the eye is in front, under a snout 

 that projects and is turned upward ; the mouth is two feet 

 and a half wide. The head is deep ; the first dorsal fin 



N 2 much 



