28 



who saw this fish informed Capt. Chemming (Chelwyn ? 

 or Chirgwin ?) that the tail was not perfect." A figure 

 which accompanied these notices has been reproduced in 

 part, and of reduced size, by Dr. Gray, in a paper pub- 

 lished in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, for 

 May 29, 1849. In this the front ray of the dorsal fin 

 standing on the forehead between the eyes is very long 

 and tapering, and curves forward before the face : the 

 following ten ra}^s diminish successively in length, and are 

 not represented as being connected by membrane : the 

 rest of the dorsal is comparatively low, and has only the 

 tips of the rays rising above the continuous membrane. 

 The ventrals have each one long ray dilated into a broadly- 

 oval pallette, apparently of membrane, folded or radiated. 



Pasted into the same copy of Pennant there is also a 

 paragraph cut from the York Chronicle, stating that on 

 the 18th of March 1796 four women picked up a curious 

 and uncommon fish, which came ashore in Filey Bay. 

 They sold it to a man who carried it to York. Sir Joseph 

 Banks's correspondent sent him a tracing of a drawing of 

 the fish by Dr. Burgh, together with observations which 

 are here abridged from Dr. Gray's paper : " Thirteen 

 feet long, one foot deep, three inches thick, head seven 

 inches long, eye one inch three-eighths in diameter. The 

 dorsal fin runs from the head to the other end, at which 

 there is no tail; it has 290 and 13 rays, and is red like 

 that of a roach or perch ; the pectoral has twelve ; the ven- 

 tral one ; no anal. Branchiostegous rays six. No teeth, 

 a soft tongue. Anus, four feet nine inches from the head. 

 The face, and inside of the mouth, black ; the irides sil- 

 very white. Though there was no caudal fin when I saw 

 it, it is not clear that he never had one, for there was an 

 appearance of mutilation in its place. W. B." 



Notices of the capture on our coasts of similar fish, 



