408 



GASTROBTMISTCHUS. 



The month terminal, oval, with tendrils; no eyes. Body lengthened, 

 lax. Breathing holes a pair, near each other, on the lower part of the 

 body at about the first third of its length. 



BOEER. 



MYXINE. HAGFISH. RAMPER EEL. POISON RAMPER. 



Myxme glutinosa, LinUjEUS. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 164 



" " Jentns; Manual, p. 623. 



Gastrohranclius ccecus, Bloch. Turton's Linnasus. Cuvier. 



" Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 612. 



" " Its internal structure — Bloch ; Schneider, 



^ pi. 104 ; and Tahrell. 



This creature bears so little resemblance to a fish that 

 several eminent writers, and among them Linnaeus, have judged 

 it proper to class it among the worms; and although on closer 

 examination the generality of naturalists have decided that in 

 its affinities it stands in nearer alliance to fishes, and especially 

 that in a descending scale it bears a close alliance to the 

 family of Lampreys, yet there are so many peculiarities in its 

 formation and prominent appearance, that we can place it only 

 on that intermediate ground which leads from one of these 

 great families to the other; while in some respects it seems 

 to stand alone, as well in its structure as habits, as if to shew, 

 as we have elsewhere observed, that a single presiding influence 

 has been the creator of all, and while establishing the specific 

 nature of each, has still united the apparently discordant 

 characters of the separate individuals into one harmonious whole. 



In its more usual range the Borer or Myxine inhabits the 

 northern seas of Europe, but it is scarcely rare in some 



