LANCELET. 469 



pool left by the tide. Mr. Couch perceiving it, took it up with 

 some water in the hollow of his hands. It was alive, very 

 active, and so transparent that the viscera were perceivable 

 through the external covering. It was taken home by Mr. 

 Couch, who made a drawing of its appearance under a mi- 

 croscope. 



The only notice of this little animal on record that I have 

 become acquainted with is that by Pallas, in his Spicilegia 

 Zoologica, already quoted ; and I insert at the foot of the 

 page, as a note, the Latin description of Pallas,* believing 

 that the reader will then have before him all that has been 

 published of this very rare little animal, of which, at least 

 as far as I am aware, possibly no other specimen has been 

 found or noticed since that to which Pallas refers, and 

 which, it is not a little singular, was also obtained from 

 Cornwall. 



Of the specimen in his possession Pallas says, " Quod 

 nunquam vivum vidi, sed liquore servatum e mari Cornubiam 

 adluente accepi olim, quodque prima facie refert piscem 

 Leptocephalum Gronovii." 



At first sight this little fish has somewhat the appearance 

 of a Leptocephalus, a British fish first sent to Gronovius 

 by our countryman and zoologist Pennant ; it more par- 

 ticularly resembles it in the arrangement of the striae on 

 the flattened sides : but Leptocephalus, as will appear by 

 a reference to the figure of it in this volume at page 311, 

 has a perfect head, though a small one, with jaws, teeth, 



* " Limax lanceolatus. Corpus anceps, planum, lineari lanceolatum, utrin- 

 que acutissimum. Margo undique limbo membranaceo auctus ; subtus vero ad 

 duas tertias longitudinis margo bilabiatus est, sulcatusque, ut sit quasi pes 

 limacinus angustissimus. Tentacula plane nulla. Latera striis obsoletis, 

 antrorsum obliquatis prope dorsum angulo recurvatis, ut quasi latus pisciculi 

 desquamatum referant." 



