The Zoologist— August, 1870. 2255 



root of the tongue was the base of the first gill-ray. The gills them- 

 selves, five in number, were the most extraordinary part of the whole 

 fish. The gill-rays and openings extended from the top of the head 

 right round to the throat; the rays were of unusual size and strength. 

 The gills were very large and fleshy, even considering the size of the 

 openings and of the fish, and in front of each, attached by a strong 

 flexible cartilage to the ray, was a slight elastic apparatus extending 

 the whole length of the ray, an inch and a half in depth, and which 

 would be precisely represented by a thin small-toothed comb made of 

 whalebone.* When the mouth was opened during the life of the 

 fish these gill-rays were seen forming part of the sides of it, and behind 

 them was the very capacious swallow, and as the mouth opened the 

 little whalebone combs involuntarily fell back to a right angle with 

 the gill-ray, and efl'ectually barred the egress through the gills of any- 

 thing except water which might have been taken into the mouth. 

 The interior of the gill-rays and mouth were covered with a soft while 

 substance resembling chamois leather. 



The greatest girth of the fish was round the gills, immediately behind 

 which the body fell off to the greatest girth of the body at the 

 pectorals. The body at its greatest girth (and throughout its length) 

 was round, just as broad as it was long, and thence tapered gradually 

 to the tail, becoming somewhat flatter and broader as it approached 

 the fork of the tail. There was no lateral line visible either during 

 the life of the fish or after its death. The pectorals, lying low and 

 close behind the gills, were of large proportionate size. The first 

 dorsal, situated about half-way between the pectorals and the ventrals, 

 was also large, rising thirteen inches above the back in the perpen- 

 dicular line. About half-way between the pectorals and the fork of 

 the tail were two large ventral fins, but no claspers (the fish was a 

 female); immediately behind them was the vent, and between the 

 ventrals and the tail was a small anal fin, just under and a little 

 behind a small second dorsal. The tail was very large in proportion 

 to the size of the fish, measuring little short of three feet in a straight 

 line from the extremity of the upper to the extremity of the lower 

 lobe. There was no appearance of any keel-like formation at the 

 sides of the body as it approached the tail; but I afterwards found 

 that for some distance from the tail the sides of the body consisted of 



* Pennant describes something of this sort in his account of the " basking shark." 

 He sajs " Within the mouth lowartls the throat is a very short sort of whalebone." 



