71 



Journal ; and agreeing as it did, in some important particulars, 

 with the malleus^ as described by Valenciennes in the ' Memoires 

 du Museum d' Histoire Natureile,' which latter species is said by 

 this writer to be found upon the coast of Brazil, I concluded it 

 must be that species. 



DeKay in his Report on the Fishes of New York, after having 

 seen several specimens, arranges it also as the malleus. 



A recent specimen, brought me by my old friend Capt. Atwood, 

 from Provincetown, where it was taken a few weeks since, 

 enables me to determine the species — to settle the question that 

 it is not the malleus, but an undescribed species, which I would 

 thus characterize. 



Zygcena subakcuata. — Head, broad again as long; anterior 

 portion of head convex ; posterior margin of head concave. Dis- 

 tance from snout to first dorsal fin equal to one fourth the length 

 of the fish. 



The malleus is described as having the head three times 

 as broad as long ; the distance between the snout and the first 

 dorsal fin equal lo one third the entire length of the fish ; the 

 anterior portion of the head slightly scalloped, and its posterior 

 margin nearly straight. 



The specimen above described is two feet long, and is the 

 third of this species I have known to be taken north of Cape 

 Cod, — all of which have been caught in the harbor of Province- 

 town, in nets set for mackerel. 



DeKay speaks of a specimen having been taken eleven feet 

 in length. He says the species is ' much dreaded for its bold- 

 ness and ferocity ; ' and Mitchill tells us of a specimen in whose 

 stomach was found ' many detached parts of a man, together 

 with his clothing.'" 



Dr. Storer also read a paper on a new species of Carcha- 

 rias, as follows : 



" Two or three months since, I read a description and presented 

 a figure of a species of shark, measuring nearly thirteen feet in 

 length, and supposed to weigh about 1500 pounds, which was 

 captured at Provincetown in June last. Thinking this enormous 

 species must have been described by some previous Ichthyologist, 

 I was unwilling to hazard a description'until I had further investi- 



