260 BANKS'S OARFISH. 



fish, and appeared to represent some organization which might 

 serve as much for steering as urging forward. 



Since the capture of the example of which we have thus given 

 an enlarged account, three or four others have been met with 

 along the north shores of the kingdom; the largest of which 

 was obtained at Kiess, a few miles from Wick, and consequently 

 not far from the extreme north of Scotland. I am indebted for 

 the few particulars which are known of it to Mr. Peach, who 

 informs me that it measured fifteen feet and about a half in 

 length, and as being much injured about the head, probably 

 more. This is therefore the largest we have yet heard of; its 

 greatest depth one foot two inches, the thickness three inches 

 and a] half, and the weight one hundred and eighty-two pounds, 

 falling 3 very far short indeed of the famous Sea Serpent, but 

 conveying the impression that the latter is a species of the same 

 order of fishes. 



Of the several examples which have thus been caught in 

 Britain, or driven on shore, there seems no reason to doubt that 

 all of them have been compelled to leave their native haunts 

 under the influence of disease; and from the facility with which 

 they become injured by rough handling, there is reason also 

 for^ believing that they commonly reside in some of the quiet 

 nooks or^depths of the ocean, to which the violence of a storm 

 can rarely penetrate, and where therefore the brittleness of their 

 texture cannot expose them to injury. 



