BANKS'S OARFISH. 261 



water, and came with, a gentle lateral undulating motion towards 

 them, shewing its crest and a small portion of the head above 

 water; they struck it with a rod, to which was attached a hook, 

 used for landing fish ; on which it made off with a vigorous and 

 vertical undulating motion, and quickly disappeared. But in a 

 short time it again appeared, and they found it again lying on 

 its side. A second blow tore the tender flesh, and the fish 

 again escaped; but on coming to it a third time, the two young 

 men placed their arms round the fish, and lifted it into the 

 boat. When brought on shore, from rough handling, the fins 

 had become much torn. Its colour was a uniform silvery grey, 

 resembling bright tinfoil, or Avhite Dutch metal, except a few 

 irregular dark spots and streaks towards the anterior part of the 

 body. On closer inspection the remains of a bright iridescence 

 were seen about the pectoral fin and head, the blue tint pre- 

 dominating. In shape the fish presents somewhat the form of 

 a double-edged sword blade, being excessively compressed; its 

 greatest thickness is decidedly nearer the ventral than the dorsal 

 border; from the thickest part it slopes to each border, the dorsal 

 being the sharper. The length of the fish was twelve feet three 

 inches, the mouth not being projected forward; immediately behind 

 the gills it measures eight inches and a half in depth, and from 

 this point it gradually enlarges to a distance of upwards of two 

 feet further back, where it attains its greatest depth of eleven 

 inches and a fourth, which dimension remains the same for a 

 foot and a half, and then diminishes to the end of the dorsal 

 fin, where the depth is three inches. At the part of greatest 

 depth the thickness measures two inches and three fourths. 



The fishermen stated that when this fish was first taken it 

 was all over of a brilliant silvery iridescent hue, which soon 

 faded. The skin is covered with a silvery matter, in which no 

 scales were visible, but which is readily detached and adheres 

 to any thing that touches it. Round the posterior margin of 

 the preoperculum was a broadish dusky mark, and near the 

 top of the head above the eye a crescentic mark of a dark 

 iridescent blue colour; besides which there were on the side 

 of the body several narrow dusky black slightly waved lines, 

 distant from each other, and obliquely inclined from before 

 backward. Of these eight or nine were above the lateral line, 

 and of unequal length; and below this line they were more 

 VOL. IT. 2 L 



