PORBEAGLE. 385 



resemblance to the Porpus, they derive their name. I have 

 found the remains of cartilaginous fishes and Cuttles in their 

 stomachs, and in one instance three full-grown Hakes. 

 This species attains a large size at an early age, so that I 

 have found it cutting its second row of teeth when nearly full- 

 grown." 



On the northern and north-east coast it occurs most fre- 

 quently during autumn, and, not to multiply descriptions 

 already in print, I shall here insert one furnished by Dr. 

 George Johnston of Berwick, who examined two specimens 

 in the autumn of 1834, both of which were taken in Ber- 

 wick Bay, and who also very kindly sent me, with his de- 

 scription, a portion of a jaw, from which the teeth on the 

 right hand at page 370 were drawn. Of these teeth there 

 were three rows, the third or inner row being much smaller 

 than the teeth of the two preceding rows, and perhaps only 

 recently exposed. 



Body fusiform, very narrow at the tail, and strongly keel- 

 ed there on each side ; skin smooth when stroked backwards, 

 of a uniform greyish black colour, the belly white : snout 

 obtusely pointed, with a band of punctures on each side of 

 the forehead terminating above the eyes, a few similar punc- 

 tures behind the eyes, and a triangular patch of them before 

 the nostrils ; they are the apertures of canals filled with a 

 transparent jelly : eyes round, dark blue ; branchial slits five, 

 cut across the neck, the posterior oblique and close to the 

 pectoral fin ; back rounded ; dorsal fin triangular, with a free 

 pointed pale-coloured process behind ; posterior dorsal fin 

 also pointed posteriorly; pectorals somewhat triangular, 

 obliquely sinuate on the posterior edge, black ; ventral fins 

 rhomboidal, meeting at the mesial line, on which are the 

 anal and generative apertures ; anal fin small, pointed be- 

 hind : tail lunate, with unequal lobes, the superior and larg- 



