HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 261 



genus," he referred the species to the genus Scymnus, which classification I accepted in 

 my Synopsis. 



A specimen of this species, sixteen feet in length, was taken on the coast of Maine, 

 about eighty miles east of Portland, in August, 1846. After being skinned and stuffed, 

 it was seen and described by William "Wood, M. D., of Portland. He supposed it to be 

 new, and called it Leiodon echinatum. His description appeared in the second volume 

 of the " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History." In the month of Jan- 

 uary, 1848, Capt. N. E. Atwood brought me, from Provincetown, a specimen he had taken 

 the day previous while fishing for cod. I at once described it and had it figured, suppos- 

 ing it to be a new species. The accompanying description and figure give its characters 

 while recent. When, however, it had been stuffed and dried, it proved to be Lesueur's 

 species ; its aspect being materially changed by the process of being skinned and preserved. 

 Another specimen was caught at Nahant, in November, 1848. It was drawn upon the 

 beach where it remained alive during the night. At its de<|th it was brought to the city for 

 exhibition. A third was harpooned at Provincetown in April, 1849, at Long Point, fifteen 

 feet long ; and still a fourth was taken on the 24th of April, the same year, at Province- 

 town, near the Long Point light-house. These are the only instances with which I am ac- 

 quainted of its capture. I have learned from conversation with an intelligent fisherman, 

 however, that individuals are captured every winter, and that it is more numerous than 

 is generally supposed. Sometimes it is very large — measuring twenty feet in length, 

 and weighing two tons or more, on these the cutaneous spines attain a great size. In the 

 vicinity of Provincetown, its most common resort is near Race Point, in a gully famous 

 for halibut and star-fish. The liver furnishes five or six gallons of oil — in one case, a 

 single half lobe filled a flour barrel, and yielded fifteen gallons of oil. It is called by the 

 fishermen gurry or ground shark, from its feeding on the offal which is thrown overboard 

 from the smacks. It is sometimes attracted, like other species of sharks, by the carcasses 

 of whales killed in Massachusetts Bay. 



There is a description of a species of Scymnus, accompanied by a figure by Valen- 

 ciennes in the " Nouvelles Annalles du Museum," torn, i, 1832, which he calls microp- 

 terus. The fish was taken near the mouth of the Seine. He considered it distinct from 

 the dried specimen of Lesueur. There is a very strong resemblance, however, between 

 the descriptions of the recent fish. 



Massachusetts, Lesueur, Storer. 



