2 Messrs. Hancock and Embleton on a Gymnetrus 
reappeared at a little distance, and pulling up to it they found it 
again lying on its side; they plied the picket a second time, and 
struck it a little behind the head; the picket again tore through 
the tender flesh by a violent effort of the fish, which escaped once 
more, but with diminished vigour; on the boat coming a third 
time alongside, the two young men putting their arms round the 
fish, lifted it into the boat. Signs of life remained for some time 
after the fish was captured, but no doubt it was in a dying or 
very sickly state when first discovered by the Taylors. 
It was exhibited the same day in Tynemouth, North and South 
Shields, and brought to Newcastle next morning. In the after- 
noon we first saw it; we found it much injured by the strokes of 
the hook and by rough handling durimg its removals and the 
examinations it had undergone. ‘The fins were a good deal torn, 
but the fish evidently quite fresh. 
Its colour was a uniform silvery gray all over, resembling bright 
tin foil or white Dutch metal, except a few irregular dark spots 
and streaks towards the anterior part of the body. On closer 
inspection the remains of a bright iridescence were seen about the 
pectoral fin and head, the blue tint predominating. 
External description—tThe fish presents somewhat the form 
of a double-edged sword blade, being excessively compressed ; its 
ereatest thickness is decidedly nearer the ventral than the dorsal 
border ; from the thickest part it slopes gradually to each border, 
the dorsal bemg the sharper. The length of the fish is 12 ft. 3 in., 
the mouth not being projected forward ; immediately behind the 
gills it measures 8} in. in depth; from this pomt it gradually 
enlarges to a distance of upwards of 2 feet further back, where it 
attains its greatest depth of 114 im.; this dimension remains 
much the same for 1 ft. beyond; it then gradually but per- 
ceptibly diminishes to the end of the dorsal fin, where the depth 
is 3 in. 
The thickness through the head at the gill-covers is 2 in., at 
the part of greatest depth 22in.; Plate I. fig. 2 shows a section 
at this part. Opposite the anus somewhat less ; it then gradually 
diminishes to the end of the dorsal fin, where it 1s upwards of 
Sths of an inch, fig. 3. 
The fishermen state that when this fish was first taken it was 
all over of a brilliant silvery iridescent hue, resembling in inten- 
sity that of the fresh herring, which soon faded, and shortly 
after we saw it, all traces of the iridescence except those already 
mentioned had disappeared. The skin is covered over with a 
silvery matter in which no scales are visible to the naked eye, 
but which is most readily detached from the skin and adheres to 
anything it comes in contact with. Submitted to the microscope 
it is found to consist partly of minute convex scale-like bodies of 
