The Torsk-Fish.'] OF ORKNEY. 201 



fin begins at the vent, and ends at the tail, but is not joined 

 with it ; the rays of the back and anal fins are numerous, but 

 the softness of these, and the thickness of the skin, hinders 

 them from being counted with exactness ; the points of the 

 back-fin, anal, and tail, are white, the rest dusky ; the pec- 

 toral fins are rounded, broad, and of a brown colour ; the 

 ventral small, thick, and fleshy, ending in four points, or cirrhi ; 

 the body, to the vent, is roundish ; the belly, from the throat, 

 growing suddenly very prominent, continuing so to the vent, 

 where it grows smaller to the tail ; beyond the vent the body 

 is pretty much compressed ; the colour of the head is dusky ; 

 the back and sides yellow, which, becoming lighter by degrees, 

 loses itself in the white of the belly ; the side line was scarce 

 discernible, but run nearer the back than the belly, till about 

 the middle of the fish it bent a little downwards, and run 

 straight to the tail. The measures of the specimen from which 

 this description was taken, were the following : The whole 

 length twenty inches and a half ; the greatest breadth four 

 and a half, which was taken at the end of the pectoral fin ; 

 at the vent, four inches ; something more than half way from 

 the vent to the tail, two inches ; at the tail, one inch and a 

 quarter ; the length of the head, four inches ; from the point 

 of the nose to the beginning of the back-fin, six ; length of 

 the back-fin, thirteen ; from the point of the lower jaw to the 

 vent, eleven inches ; the anal fin, eight ; tail something more 

 than two. 



There is no fish more common on the coast of Shetland 

 than the tusk. It is there caught among the ling, and in ap- 



cc 



