GERMON. 101 



towards the north; for while the last-named fish is often seen 

 in our waters, and even visits the German Ocean, the Germon 

 has only on two or three occasions been recorded as British. 

 Twice it has been taken in the Mount's Bay, in Cornwall, of 

 which an account is given in the Report of the Natural History 

 Society of Penzance, as referred to above; and from one of 

 these our figure and description are taken. 



A third example was obtained at Portland in the middle of 

 March, 1861, and came into the possession of William Thompson, 

 Esq., of Weymouth; to whom I owe the information of its 

 capture, and who presented it to the British Museum. Its 

 length was thirty-three inches, and the extreme girth twenty- 

 two inches and a quarter; extent of the pectoral fin eleven 

 inches and a half. The specimen from which we obtain our 

 figure and description was much less than this — the length 

 being eighteen inches, and the depth where greatest five inches. 

 The snout sharp, under jaw longest, gape small; teeth in a 

 single row, small, sharp, and incurved. Eye large, placed over 

 the angle of the mouth; diverging thread-like branching lines 

 passing from it backward. Gill-covers in well-marked sections. 

 A corset begins behind the gill-covers, and encircling the origin 

 of the pectoral fin, forms for it a depression into which it falls. 

 From thence this corset rises to the back, and extends to the 

 second dorsal fin. Lateral line crooked posteriorly. The first 

 dorsal fin rises behind the root of the pectoral, and extends 

 to within a short distance of the second dorsal; the first four 

 rays longest, fourteen in all, and spinous. Second dorsal hook- 

 shaped, fifteen soft rays; anal also hook-shaped, thirteen rays; 

 this fin behind the second dorsal. Pectorals with thirty-seven 

 rays, so long as to reach to the hinder border of the second 

 dorsal. The two ventral fins close together, on a scale round 

 which is a depression, and between them are four false rays; 

 the first ray of this fin spinous, five others. Tail deeply con- 

 cave. Finlets eight above and seven below. This example 

 shewed extraordinary strength when caught with a line. 



