GYMNETRUS.] PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. 373 



LENGTH. From four to six feet. 



DESCRIPT. " Body excessively compressed, particularly towards the 

 back, where it does not exceed a table-knife in thickness : breadth (in a 

 specimen three feet long) nearly five inches, tapering to the tail : colour 

 silvery, with minute scales ; the dorsal fin of an orange-colour, occupying 

 the whole ridge from the head to the tail, with the rays of unequal sizes : 

 caudal fin forked, the rays of each fork about four inches long : pectorals 

 very minute : no ventral or anal fins whatever : vent immediately under 

 the pectoral fins, and close to the gill-openings : head about four inches 

 and a half long, compressed like the body, with a groove in the top : gill- 

 lids formed of transparent porous plates : eyes one inch and a quarter in 

 diameter: both jaws armed with small teeth: lateral line rough: and, 

 towards the tail, armed with minute spines pointing forwards, and these 

 are the only spines on the body." (Another specimen.) "Length four 

 feet and a half: breadth eight inches : thickness one inch, thin at the 

 edges, viz. back and belly : length of the head five inches, terminating 

 gradually in a short snout : tail consisting of eight or. nine fin-bones or 

 rays, the third ray seven inches long, the rest four inches : dorsal fin 

 reaching from the neck to the tail, rays four inches long : on each side of 

 the fish, from head to tail, a row of prickles pointing forward, distance 

 between each half an inch : under edge fortified by a thick ridge of blunt 

 prickles: pectorals one inch long, lying upwards: skin rough, without 

 scales (?) : colour a leaden or silvery lustre ; dorsal fin and tail blood- 

 colour : the skin or covering of the head like that of a herring : several 

 small teeth : gills red, consisting of four layers." FLEM. /. c. 



The above descriptions were communicated to Dr. Fleming by Dr. Alex- 

 ander Duguid of Kirkwall, Orkney, in April and October 1829. They 

 relate to a species of fish, which it would seem is not unfrequently cast 

 on the shores of the Island of Sanday during bad weather, and which is 

 called there the Deal-Fish. Dr. Fleming considers it as identical with 

 the Vaagmaer of Olafsen, the Gymnogaster arcticus of Brunnich, and 

 of Cuvier's first edition of the " Regne Animal," though afterwards re- 

 ferred by this last author to the genus Gymnetrus, Bl.*, under the 

 belief that the ventrals, usually considered as wanting in the Vaagmaer, 

 were only accidentally lost in the specimens hitherto observed-!-. The 

 Vaagmaer is found off Iceland. Nothing is known of it as a British 

 species beyond what Dr. Fleming has recorded in the work above 

 referred to. 



(7.) G. Hawkenii, Bloch, Ichth. pi. 423. Blochian Gymnetrus, 

 Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. iv. p. 197. pi. 29. Ceil Conm, Couch in 

 Linn. Trans, vol. xiv. p. 77. Hawkens Gymnetrus, Yarr. Brit. 

 Fish. vol. i. p. 188. 



A doubtful native. Said to have been "drawn on shore in a net at 

 Newlin in Cornwall, in Feb. 1791. The extremity of the tail was wanting ; 

 the length of what remained was eight feet and a half, the depth ten 

 inches and a half, thickness two inches and three quarters ; weight 

 forty pounds." Couch. The species itself is an obscure one, and not well 

 ascertained. Bloch and Shaw have both figured the caudal fin from 

 imagination, that part having been deficient in the specimens hitherto 

 obtained. 



* Reg. An. 2nd Edit. torn. n. p. 219. 



t This opinion, that the Vaagmaer possesses ventrals, when not mutilated by accident, has 

 been confirmed by Professor Beinhardt, who has recently published a notice respecting a nearly 

 perfect specimen of this fish, which had been cast ashore during the foregoing year, on the coast 

 of Skagcn. See L' InstH,u t, 1834. p. 158. 



