424 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
of the fish in every particular except one: he mentions the existence 
of several free spines in front of the dorsal; this specimen most 
certainly had none. Possibly this may be a sexual distinction. 
The other rare fish is the “ Wreck-fish” (Couch’s Polyprion, 
P. cernium, called by Couch the “Stone Basse”), which was 
caughtin Mount’s Bay on the 24th August, and kindly sent to me 
by Mr. A. O. Mitchell, of Chymorvah (the friend who sent me the 
sword-fish). Its dimensions were as follows :—Over all twenty 
inches ; eye to fork, twelve inches; depth six inches and five- 
eighths; weight, six pounds.* It will be seen from these measure- 
ments that this specimen was small. It agrees with Yarrell’s 
description, and also with Couch’s, except that I am certain that 
at the time I examined it—about eight hours after its capture— 
it had on its ventrals a first ray, spinous, but with no part of 
the spine free, and on the anals the three first rays spinous, but 
with the spines all similarly concealed by the membrane of the 
fin. Since then the skin of the fish has been dried in the process 
of preservation, and these rays, owing to the shrinkage of the fin 
membrane, all now appear as free. Its mouth was a perfect study ; 
it was filled with beds of very small teeth, in, literally, every place 
on which a fish can carry teeth. They were not only in the jaws 
but on the vomer, the palatine bones, on the intermaxillaries, on the 
pharynx, and on the arches of the gills. On these latter, in addition 
to the small teeth, there were on each of the upper arches a regular 
row of spinous teeth, or spines, of about three-eighths of an inch 
long; on the second arch these became stumpy teeth, and on the 
third little knobs. The scale-rayed processes on the soft-rayed end 
of the dorsal, and on the ventrals and anals, were very apparent. 
1 took also one specimen of Yarrell’s blenny, the first which I 
recollect having seen. 
In crustaceans (stalk-eyed, I do not know much about the others) 
I did well,—I have already mentioned to you that I took Wrinkled 
Swimming Crabs of very small size,—Long-armed Munida, Andrews’ 
Galathea, Long-legged Spider Crab, Common Spider Crab (of small 
size, but covered with sea-weed aud corallines), and Long-horned 
Porcelain Crab. On this latter I made a curious observation. 
The first I had was taken in the ordinary way in a “ pill” (or pool of 
* On September 7th I received another specimen of this fish, within six hours of 
its capture on a hook and line. The spinous rays on the ventral and anal fins 
were all free. 
