348 FISHES. 



three days, and was afterwards found floating dead on the 

 surface. Still larger individuals, but of uncertain species, 

 are mentioned by Lac^pede, who says that one taken at Bar- 

 badoes required seven yoke of oxen to draw it. A sketch of 

 another, which was said to be twenty feet long, was sent to 

 Lacepede ; and Sonnini speaks of one which appeared to him 

 to be longer and wider than the ship in which he was sailing. 

 A fcetus taken from the uterus of the mother captured at 

 Jamaica, and preserved in the British Museum, is five feet 

 broad, and weighed twenty pounds. The mother measured 

 fifteen feet in width as well as in length, and was between 

 three and four feet thick. The capture of " Devil-fishes " of 

 such large size is attended with danger, as they not rarely 

 attack and capsize the boat. They are said to be especially 

 dangerous when they accompany their young, of which they 

 Ining forth one only at a time. 



SECOND SUB-OEDER— HOLOCEPHALA. 



One external gill-oiJening only, covered by a fold of the shin, 

 wltich cneloses a rudimentary cartilaginous gill-cover; four 

 hranchial clefts luithin the gill-cavity. The maxillary and 

 palatal apparatus coaleseent with the skull. 



This sub-order is represented in the living fauna by one 

 family only, ChimaTida: ; it forms a passage to the folio whig 

 order of fishes, the Ganoids. In external appearance, and 

 with regard to the structure of their organs of propagation, 

 the Chima3ras are Sharks (See Fig. 96, p. 184). The males 

 are provided with " claspers " in connection with the ventral 

 fins, and the ova are large, encased in a horny capsule, and 

 few in nundjer ; and there is no doubt that they are impreg- 

 nated within the oviduct, as in Sharks. Chimieras are naked, 

 but, as in Seylliidcc, very young individuals possess a series of 



