178 COMPARISONS OF STRUCTURE IN ANIMALS. 



in the hollow of his hands. It was alive, Very 

 active, and so transparent that the viscera were 

 perceivable through the external covering." 

 The celebrated Pallas possessed a specimen of 

 this strange fish, also taken, singular to say, 

 upon the Cornish coast ; and according to Mr. 

 Yarrell, he is the only writer who had pre- 

 viously noticed the species. Pallas regarded 

 it as a slug, and not a fish, and termed it 

 Limaoo lanceolatus. It has neither eyes, gUl- 

 covers, scales, nor fins, except one along the 

 ridge of the back. The mouth is on the under 

 part of a narrow elongated head ; and is fringed 

 on each side with a row of slender filaments. 

 We agree, however, with Mr. Yarrell, that 

 the lancelet comes within the pale of the fishes, 

 between which and the mollusca it may be 

 regarded as a connecting Hnk. 



We have seen among quadrupeds and rep- 

 tiles, the tail converted into an instrument of 

 prehension ; among quadrupeds, the spider- 

 monkeys and opossums are examples in point, 

 and the chameleons among reptiles. Among 

 fishes, the hippocampus bas the long taper 

 finless tail pi-ehensile, like that of the 

 chameleon. 



Mr. Yarrell, in his valuable work on British 



