BANKS'S OAR-FISH. 33 



with the remains of the torn membrane. In addition 

 to these there were 268 other rays whose acute points 

 overtopped the connecting membrane, or 280 dorsal rays 

 in all. About the middle of the fish, where the dorsal rays 

 are highest, excepting those on the head, they measure 

 upwards of three inches and a half, and at the termination 

 of the fin their height has decreased to one inch. Behind 

 the termination of the dorsal fin the edge of the back 

 slopes rapidly downwards to within an inch of the line of 

 the belly, and then forms a rounded point which is the 

 distal extremity of the fish. Both the upper and under 

 edges of this extremity are very thin, and the fishermen 

 insisted that when they took the fish this part was entire, 

 and that there was no tail-fin whatever. The edges may be 

 pressed together, and seem to fit. The pectorals are at- 

 tached low, and contain eleven rays. The ventral fins were 

 represented by a pair of very strong straight spines broken 

 short to the length of four inches, but were said to have 

 been originally twice that length, having even then broken 

 ends ; a membranous edge was visible at their bases. 

 The vertebrae, judging from elevations obscurely seen 

 through the muscles, were reckoned at 110. Fin-ray 

 formula 



D. 280: V. 1 : P. 11. Vertebrae 110? Hancock and EmUeton, I.e. 



Messrs. Hancock and Embleton's excellent paper may 

 be consulted for the internal anatomical structure, and 

 several particulars of external form, which have been 

 omitted here from want of space. * 



In 1850, another example of this fish, alive but muti- 

 lated, was cast ashore on the Yorkshire coast, near Red- 

 car. It measured nearly twelve feet, and weighed sixty- 

 six pounds, as reported in the Zoologist (2709) by T. S. 



* For a larger cut of the head copied from this paper, see foot of page 35, 

 VOL. I. (ZndSupp.) D 



