MisceUaneous. 247 



The end of the tail, as usual iu the Regalecl, is obliquely trun- 

 cated ; at the extreme tip there was a small scar or mark. 



The length of the head, 9 inches, is contained 11-7 times in the 

 total length, so that it is larger in proportion than usual ; according 

 to Liitken the proportion varies between -^-^ and ^j. The head 

 showed the typical form of the genus, and, as in the two older and 

 larger specimens in the Bergen Museum, there are no teeth. The 

 apparatus of teeth, mentioned by Collett, on the first branchial arch 

 seems to have about 40 rays, but the head is so much damaged 

 that it is impossible to state the exact number. The tongue also 

 was lost. The pupil was round and deep black, and the iris silvery 

 white in the fresh animal. The silvery- white body had several 

 black cross bands, of which five larger ones extended across the 

 whole side obliquely from above downwards. 



This herring-king therefore difiers from the typical Regalecus 

 glesne only in its comparatively larger head, its greater depth, and 

 the smaller number of rays in the dorsal ; but as these characters 

 are very variable, the specimen may be regarded as a true Regalecus 

 glesne. 



The distance from the tip of the snout to the anus is about 

 6 feet, or 75 per cent, of the total length, and a proportion so ab- 

 normal that the author concludes that a portion of the tail had been 

 lost, as according to Collett the normal proportion is -^^j instead of 

 |. Hence this animal would normally have measured nearly 

 15^ feet in length, which is not unreasonable, as examples have 

 been met with over 5 metres in length, and this supposition is con- 

 firmed by the great depth of the body. It must, however, be re- 

 marked that the caudal part was complete and smooth with the 

 exception of the fresh lesion at the apex ; the form of the tail most 

 resembled that of the Stavanger specimen of 1881. 



The individual was a female with a well-developed ovarj\ The 

 upper part of the intestine was empty, while the lower part co)i- 

 tained a yellowish-brown undeterminable fluid. — Nyt 3Iagazin for 

 Naiurvidenshaherne, Bd. xxx. p. 232. 



Carterius Stepanowii, Petr. By H. J. Carter, F.R.S. &c. 



This freshwater sponge, which in 1884 was named '■'DosiliaC^) 

 Stejxinotuii" by Dr. W. Dybowski, from a specimen found near 

 Charkow, in Southern Russia (' Annals,' 1884, vol. xiv. p. 60), was 

 also found in 1885 by Prof. Fr. Petr, of the University of Prague, 

 in the neighbourhood of Deutschbrod, in Bohemia, about 60 miles 

 south-east of that city ; and his description of it, which is beautifully 

 illustrated, was published in the Czech language at Prague in 1886 

 (•' Dodatky ku Faune CeslvVch Hub Sladkovodnfch," Tisdem dra. 

 Ed. Gregra v Praze, 1886). It appears to me to be the same as 

 that discovered by Mr. H. Mills, of Buffalo, New York, in the 

 Niagara Iliver in 1880, viz. Carterius tuhisperma (Proc. A.cad. Nat. 

 Sci. PhUadelphia, 14th June, 1881, p. 150). 



Thus this remarkable genus of Sjjongllla, first brought to notice 



