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Captain Helms succeeding in cutting open the fish and extract- 

 ing therefrom three hundred and twenty gallons of liver matter.* 

 The crew afterwards separated the head from the body by 

 making a division between the gill openings and the pectoral 

 fins, and managed, after much exertion, to hoist it on board, 

 although it was estimated to weigh over a ton. On hearing of 

 this extraordinary capture, I hastened, on the arrival of the 

 schooner into port, to view and procure the trophies, (the head 

 and caudal fin,) by which I am enabled to furnish the following 

 particulars. 



The Head, as it lay on the deck of the schooner with the 

 under jaw uppermost, measured between the posterior angles of 

 the lips, five feet across from angle to angle, in a straight line. 

 The upper or frontal portion of the head terminated in a smooth, 

 round, conical, blunt pointed snout, the extremity projecting 

 twelve inches beyond the opening of the mouth ; around this 

 snout there were a number of regular lines of pores or papillae 

 that on pressure gave out a gelatinous secretion. 



The Eye is situated fifteen inches from the point of the snout 

 and only three inches from the verge of the lip, so that this 

 animal must have been enabled to distinguish objects close to the 

 entrance of the mouth or even inside its capacious jaws when 

 they were open. The eye-ball projects from an oblong socket 

 and is turned somewhat downwards. 



The Nostrils are placed seven inches forward of the eye on 

 the underside, from the interior of which some filaments pro- 

 ject. 



The Gills are five in number and nearly surround the neck. 

 Each gill has imbedded in it a cartilaginous bone arch that term- 

 inates in ligaments attached to the Os hyoides and ethmoid, and 

 there is, in the middle of the arch also, a ligament that answers 

 the purpose of a joint. The gills seem capable of powerful 

 muscular expansion and contraction. Each gill-opening is pro- 

 vided with a cullender or comb-like apparatus, apparently for 

 retaining or preventing the smaller portions of food from passing 

 through the gill-openings with the water received by the mouth. 



-* The stomach was opened but contained only a few remains of Mollus- 

 cous animals. 



