SOME FISH NOTES 317 



sure that his was a complete list. The following are well- 

 authenticated instances : 



1667. Mr. Southwell's rendering of Sir Thomas Browne's 

 account of this fish is thus quaintly given : l 



" Sometimes wee meet with a mola or moonefish so called 

 from some resemblance it hath of a crescent in the extreme 

 part of the body from one finne unto another one being taken 

 neere the shoare at yarmouth before breake of day seemed 

 to shuier & grunt like an hogge as Authors deliuer of it the 

 flesh being hard and neruous it is not like to afford a good 

 dish but from the Liuer wch is large white & tender some- 

 what may bee expected the gills of these fishes wee found 

 thick beset with a kind of sealowse. in the yeare 1667 a 

 mola was taken at monsley wch weighed 2 hundred pound." 



1821. "One taken November, 1821." (Paget's Sketch of 

 the Natural History of Great Yat 'mouth , 1834.) 



1835. One from Yarmouth, now in the Wisbech Museum. 



1836. November 13. Example from Overstrand Beach, 

 recorded in Miss Gurney's Diary. 



1843. An i8-in. example taken off Overstrand. 



1850. November. Two at Lynn and one at Salthouse. 



1863. October. One at Lynn. 



1865. Thornham. Example 4ft. 3 in. from nose to tail; 

 from tip to tip of fins, 6ft.; weight, 2iolb. Recorded in 

 the Field, January 7th, 1865. 



1887. September. One at Yarmouth. 



1892. In first week in October one was stranded in the 

 River Nene at Sutton Bridge. 



1896. September. I obtained a small specimen which had 

 been captured in a " dydle," or large hand-net, over the side 

 of a trawler. The fish measured iSin. in length, and 2ft. 

 4 in. from the extremity of the dorsal to that of the anal fin. 

 Weight, lolb. ! 



1900. On September 5th a 2-ft. example was taken in 

 Yarmouth Roads. 



1906. December. The following is a paragraph, date un- 

 certain, from a local paper : " A sunfish has been washed 

 ashore upon the beach at Bacton, and as it was in a distinctly 

 game condition, was ordered to be buried by the custom-house 

 authorities. . . . They reach a considerable size, and have 

 occurred from time to time along our seaboard." 



There are few ' things natural ' over which greater mis- 



1 Natural History of Norfolk, edited by T. Southwell, F.Z.S. 



