240 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



I told you there are many Pectunculites four and six 

 times as large as any shell of that yet known ; I speak of 

 England. 



The Nautilus shell in museums seems to me to be 

 only the tail of the animal, and the diaphragms thereof 

 the vertebrae ; I know not how many volutae the perfect 

 shell itself may have. 



Your opinion of cartilaginous fishes poising and raising 

 themselves seems probable to me. I am not able to 

 resolve you about those blood-vessels of vipers, serpents, 

 and fishes, which you mention. 



How do the cetaceous fishes raise and poise them- 

 selves? I think they spout water. How doth the 

 Lamprey \Petromyzon marinus~\, the Mullus [Red 

 Mullet], the Anchovy \Engraulis encrasicholos], the 

 Draco marinus [the Great Weever] , the Tunny [Thynnus 

 vulgaris], the Drum Fish \_Tamburo~\, the Uranoscopus, 

 the Dolphin, the Centrina, the Skate, Torpedo, Earn 

 Piscatrix, Scorpius major, the Bull Head [Coitus 

 ffobio], &c., which Signer Redi in a late book affirms 

 to have no air- or swimming-bladder, raise and poise 

 themselves ? 



London, Feb. 25, 9J. 



Mr. LHWYD to Mr. RAY. 



HONOURED SIR, The Holywell Moss seemed to me a 

 variety (though perhaps it may be a distinct species) of 

 the Mttscus Trichomanis facie, Sfc., Jungermanni. The 

 common people will not have it called Mwswgl [moss], 

 but Gwiribh ; which word is nowhere else used in any 

 other signification than for a virgin. And here perhaps 

 it may allude to the virgin St. Winifrid, and might 

 have been formerly called Gwdlht Gwiribh, i. e. Capillus 

 virginis. Georg. Agricola* says that the stones smelling 

 * DeNat. Foss.,1. i. c.5. 



