14 Messrs. Hancock and Embleton on a Gymnetrus 
and dyed everything that it touched; and might be said in some 
sort to resemble the quicksilvered back of a looking-glass. It 
appeared when laid on the sand like a long oak plank, and was 
such a fish as nobody here ever saw before, which caused a vast 
concourse of people round it the whole day.” 
The breaking of the fish was owing to its great delicacy of 
structure, and probably its little capacity for lateral motion. It 
was necessary to take great care in removing the Cullercoats fish 
for fear of fracture from the same causes. 
We are informed by Mr. Stanton of Newcastle, that upwards 
of fifty years ago a silvery fish resembling im its general cha- 
racters the subject of this paper was exhibited here, and we have 
been favoured by Mr. Robert Bewick with a copy of a hand-bill 
relating to a fish shown in this town March 27, 1794, undoubt- 
edly referring to the specimen seen by Mr. Stanton. It is as 
follows :—‘ To be seen at Moses Hopper’s, Flesh Market, a most 
curious fish taken at Newbiggen by the Sea, 10 ft. long, 1 ft. 
broad, 2 in. thick, and is thought to be the greatest curiosity 
that was ever seen in the kingdom before.” 
This fish was sketched by our celebrated townsman Thomas 
Bewick, but unfortunately the sketch has been mislaid. 
We have lately been favoured with a letter from Mr. George 
Tate of Alnwick respecting a fish of this genus, from which we 
make the following extract :—“ A fish was exhibited in January 
or February of the year 1845, similar in its general form to that, 
a drawing of which you showed me when I was last in Newcastle. 
One of the Preventive Service men observed this fish lymg in 
a shallow pool in the sands about a mile south of Alnmouth, 
where it had been left by the receding tide. Its great length 
and unusual appearance at once raised the man’s curiosity and 
excited his fears. On approaching it the creature bent itself 
round so as to appear like the rim of a coach-wheel, and the man 
supposing it was about to dart upon him drew his sword and 
struck it on the head. The fish struggled much, but the man 
striking it repeatedly at length succeeded in cutting off its head. 
«This fish was 16 ft. long, 11 im. deep, and about 6 in. thick 
at the thickest part, from which it very gradually diminished 
both in thickness and depth. The eye was large, measuring 
about 5 in. in circumference. The teeth very small and very 
acute. The skin was smooth, and no pustulations or hard poimts 
were observed, neither were any transverse streaks noticed ; but 
there were a few longitudinal ridges or corrugations about half 
an inch apart along the sides. The colour was a silvery gray, 
and the skin was covered by minute silvery-looking scales or par- 
ticles, which were in such great quantity, that in the course of the 
struggles the creature made after being struck, the spot where it 
