144 Short Sun-fishy Captures. 



tailless, with back and belly-fin stuck vertically at the end ; 

 internally their gristly spine, the flesh, and internal anatomy 

 are characteristically different from ordinary fish. 



(1) The SHORT SUN-FISH (Orthagoriscusmola) is oval shaped 

 and laterally flattened. Specimens have been got several feet in 

 diameter, such enormous ones weighing several hundred- 

 weights ; but their flesh is valueless as food, becoming of jelly 

 (starchy) consistence when cooked. Several examples have 

 been taken both on the seaboard and estuaries of our District. 



Among others we may enumerate Boys' Sandwich specimen, 

 1792. It has also occurred occasionally near Harwich, Essex 

 coast (Dale and Lindsey). In the Fig. 15. 



beginning of December, 1868, the 

 Folkestone fishermen captured a 

 specimen, which Buckland made a 

 cast of for his museum. It mea- 

 sured, nose to stern, 3 feet 5| inches, 

 and vertically from tip of back to 

 tip of belly-fin 4 feet 8 inches 



weighing close on 1 cwt. A large 



T ^ i f -..- (Orthacorincus mola) as it 



example is recorded from Margate appear8 ^ the 8urface ' of the 



in August, 1867. At intervals it water, extremely reduced, 

 is not unusual on the Dover coast. Mr. Fitch has noted 

 the case of a female 4f feet long, taken in the Crouch river 

 near Battles Bridge, above Burnham, 21st October, 1874. 

 This was afterwards exhibited at Rayleigh, Rochford and 

 Chelmsford. A second was seen by him in the same river some 

 years after. It moved slowly, and the boat got near before it 

 sank and made off. One weighing 196 lb., a total length of 

 4 ft. 3 in., depth 5 ft. 2 in., was caught by the shrimpers off 

 Southend at the end of September, 1872. It was exhibited at 

 Messrs. Groves, Bond Street, London. At Leigh-on-Sea, 

 September, 1897, J. Frost and R. Kirby, returning to harbour, 

 espied an unusual fish, or rather high fin, sticking out of the 

 water near Canvey Spit. They rowed to it, and gently 



