APPENDIX. 255 



part of the gill cover ; over the upper jaw and on the 

 wrinkled part of the gill cover, with abbreviated lines of 

 small blackish spots ; helly white, with a few spots on the 

 middle ;^w* dusky, pectorals and ventrals white before and 

 behind ; gill covers capacious, broadly united beneath, and 

 each side tapering gradually to a somewhat obtuse point 

 which nearly attains to the line of the anterior origin of 

 the ventral fins ; on the upper basal portion of the gill 

 cover, and extending for a short distance along the side of 

 the head, the surface is wrinkled to permit the great dila- 

 tation of the part ; mouth entirely destitute of teeth, or of 

 roughness to the touch ; tongue with large dusky spots ; 

 jaws within margined with dusky ; posterior bone of the 

 gill opening covered with papillae pointing backwards ; a 

 yellow oblong-oval cartilaginous bone on the tail beneath 

 the termination of the caudal iin. 



Total length four feet eight inches. 



Rostrum, from the anterior canthus of the eye to the 

 tip, fourteen and a half inches. 



In the above description we have endeavoured to state 

 such characters chiefly, as could not be drawn from the ^ 

 dried specimens, and that have therefore been hitherto 

 wanting. 



In the gills of this fish were several Lamprey Eels, (Pe- 

 tromyzon,) of a small species. The Paddle-fish is frequent- 

 ly seen to leap out of the water in the manner of the Stur- 

 geon. They grow to a somewhat larger size than the mea- 

 sure above recorded. The Polyodon of Lacepede we have 

 not seen. 



