16 Messrs. Haneock and Embleton on a Gymnetrus 
On consulting however the accounts which have appeared of 
the Sea Serpent, we find that they relate in most imstances to 
creatures widely different from the Ribbon Fish, such as whales, 
seals, sharks, &c. seen under disadvantageous circumstances or 
impe@fectly observed. Still, though the Gymnetrus may not have 
originated the idea of the existence of a marine serpent, we think 
it not improbable that the oecasional appearance of this fish may 
very materially have tended to keep up among the Norwegian 
fishermen that faith which they are stated to hold in the exist- 
ence of such a monster. 
Of the habits of the Gymnetrus little can be said. The deli- 
cate general conformation of the body, the smallness and tender- 
ness of the mouth, the absence of teeth, the delicacy of the fins, 
show clearly that it is a fish not organized for attack—the dorsal 
crest and the ventral processes being obviously for the purpose 
of balancing the body, and not for either attack or defence. Its 
means of defence may consist partly in the bone-studded skin, but 
chiefly in the adaptation for flight, evidenced in the compressed 
forfn of the body and in the great length and power of the tail. 
The small amount of half-digested food found in the stomachal 
cecum goes so far to prove the non-rapacious habits of the Gym- 
netrus, aud make it probable that its habitual food is confined to 
the spawn of other fish, and the soft, small, and defenceless in- 
habitants of the deep. The absence of air-bladder seems to indi- 
cate the sea-bottom as the natural resort of this fish, where its 
food would be most abundant. 
The only evidence of its being indigenous on the north-eastern 
coast rests in its having been observed six times since 1759. There 
is little doubt of the remarkable circumstance that all the six have 
been captured during the spring months. 
In conclusion, we have only to state, that the fish 1s now in the 
possession of Mr. Edward Whitfield of Newcastle, who kindly 
granted us permission to make the necessary examinations, and we 
are happy in being able to state that that gentleman has expressed. 
his intention of presenting this rare fish to the museum of the 
Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and New- 
castle-upon-Tyne. 
Since writing the above we have received a pamphlet entitled 
“ An Account of the Rare Fish, Regalecus Glesne, caught off Cul- 
lercoats,” &c. In it we find a copy of a figure of a Gymnetrus 
taken at Newlyn in Cornwall on Saturday 23rd day of February 
1788. This figure, with descriptive notes appended, is bound up 
at the end of a copy of Pennant’s ‘ British Zoology’ in the Banks- 
ian library. Mr. J. E. Gray supposes this figure and notes to 
be the authority for the various descriptions and figures of the 
