436 



NATURE 



\S^pt. 26, 1872 



it. The tail may also be divided into segments. The 

 s'.iolet )!i should be well packed in dry hay or straw. 



rrecaulions. — The ban:s should oa no account be 

 boiled or placed in hot water. They should not be allowed 

 to remain in the sun after they are once quite dry. In 

 severing the various portions of the skeleton from one 

 another, s^reat care should be taken that the knife passes 

 between the bDnes through joints, and that the bones are 

 not cut or injured in the process. 



H. N. MOSELEY 



NOTICE OF A SUPPOSED NEW MARINE 

 AXIMAL FROM WASHINGTON TERRITORY 

 NOR TH-WEST A M ERICA * 



SOME months ago Capt. D. Herd of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company's service, sent me several specimens 

 which at first sight appeared to resemble long thin peeled 

 white willow wands marc than anything else. These 

 objects, of which I exhibit examples, are about a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter at their thickest part near 

 the base, and taper gradually to a slender apex. The base 

 also narrows slightly and presents traces of corrugations. 

 The longest are upwards of six feet in length. Capt. Herd 

 merely stated that they had been brought from 

 North West America, and asked me to find out what they 

 were, promising an account of all he knew about them on 

 a future occasion. 



Expecting to see Capt. Herd very shortly, I did not my- 

 self make any very accurate examination of these objects, 

 but I convinced myself thit they were of animal origin, 

 and was inclined to regard them as possibly bones of one 

 of the gigantic Rays. I gave specimens of them to Prof. 

 Flower, Prof. Milne-Edwards of Paris, and several other 

 naturalists, f who visited the rooms of the Zoological 

 Society, and who nil said that the objects were new to 

 them and that they did not know what they were, but were 

 mostly inclined to regard them as the axes of an unknown 

 Pennatulide animal. 



Knowing that Prof. Kcilliker of VViirzburg had recently 

 been engaged on a monograph of the Pennatulidae, I like- 

 wise sent him a specimen, in reference to which he was 

 kind enough to write to me as follows : — 



"The object you sent me, found near Vancouver Island, 

 is indeed the axis of an unknown Pennatulide, and agrees 

 with none of those described in my monograph. It differs 

 from all axes of PennatuUdcC investigated by me, in show- 

 ing no radial fibres, not even the very short ones, described 

 by me in Funlciilina qiiadranguhiris and Haliptcris 

 ( Virgitlarid) christii, and may therefore belong to a new 

 genus. Except in this respect the said axis agrees most 

 with that of Halipfcris christii, but there is also a differ- 

 ence, as the axis of Ost'-occUa, as we may call it, is abso- 

 lutely quadrangular in its lowest part for the length of 

 about 3 centimetres. 



" I put the four pieces you sent together and found a 

 total length of 1769 metres. 



"The thickest part is found at the distance of about 

 o'2iom. from the lower end, and measures 6'3mm. in 

 breadth. Both ends are broken; the lower measures rS 

 mm. in breadth, and the upper o'5mm. In general the 

 axis is cylindrical and smooth but there are granulations 

 and warty excrescences on the lower end for a length of 

 about o'2om. The axis is calcareous, and shows after the 

 extraction of the earthy matter fine fibrils and lamellx 

 like the axes of all other Pennatulidae. 



* The substance of this paper was read before Section DJat the meeting of 

 the British Association at Brighton, August 20, 1872. 



t A ipecimen given 10 Dr. Giinther was hanaed byhiin to Dr. Gray, who to 

 my great surprise without consulting me or even ascertaining correctly where 

 I had obtained it, immediately described it in the " Anna! of Natural W istory" 

 {P'ourih scries, vol i.x. p. 405) as a "new species" of his genus **Osti\heUa," 

 whatever that genus may be, for its author considers it "very doubtful 

 whetiier it belongs to the Pennatulidse" and states that "it may be the 

 long coui:al bone of a form of decapod cephalopod." I 



" I may further add, that no Pennatulide of this size is 

 known from the west coast of America." 



.Shortly after I had received this communication from 

 Prof KoUiker, I obtained from Capt. Herd the following 

 account of the manner in which these objects had come 

 into his possession. 



" These rods arc the back bones of a sort of fish found in 

 great abundance at ISarraud's Inlet, Washington Territory, 

 North-West America, whence they have been brought by 

 two Captains in our service. These animals are shaped 

 like a Conger eel, but are quite transparent, their bodies 

 being composed of a mass of jelly — they are about 8 inches 

 in diameter. The head is like a shark's head ; it is 

 attached to the thick end of the rod— it has two eyts and 

 a mouth placed low down. The back bone is also trans- 

 parent in the living animal, but becomes hard when dried 

 on the beach by the sun. These fishes swim about in 

 shoals along with the dog-fishes. 



The rods were brought by our ships Prince of IVa/cs 

 and Princess Roja/, Capt. Anderson, who has made me the 

 accompanying sketch of the fish itself" 



Found at Barraud's Inlet, Washington Territory, amongst the 



A somewhat similar account of the origin of these 

 objects is given in the subjoined extract from a letter of 

 the Hon. Mr. Justice Crease, of Victoria, British Columbia, 

 who has recently sent a specimen of the same object to 

 the Royal Horticultural Society. 



"I send you by this post a specimen, which Mr.Claudet 

 (Superintendent of our Government Assay Office) has sent 

 to me, to inquire what it was, of the bone of a fish taken 

 frequently in Barraud Inlet, near New Westminster, 

 Fraser river, by Messrs. Dick and Nelso.a at their .Saw 

 mills. There has b;en a great discussion here among 

 brother ignoramuses as to whether it is vegetable or 

 animal production. Though it has a singular b eakagc it 

 answers to the test as lime. Claudet is a clever man, and 

 thinks with me that it is bone. I have broken it in several 

 pieces for convenience of transmission. Cm you tell us 

 what it really is .'' I have seen several like it and from the 

 same place. Dick and Nelson are both respectable men 

 and Claudet of course is beyond suspicion." (May lo, 

 1872). 



Capt. Anderson being absent from England, I have not 

 been able to ascertain whether the information above 

 given was founded on his own observations or on the 

 accounts given to him by the inhabitants of the district of 

 Barraud's Inlet. Supposing the former to be the case, and 

 that these objects are really derived from such an animal 

 as is described and figured above, I can only suggest that 

 they may be the hardened notochords of a low- 

 organised fish, allied either to the Chimaeroids or to the 

 Lampreys, in which the notochord is persistent through- 

 out life. It is quite certain I think, that they cannot be 

 any part of the true vertebral column. 



But whether this be the case or the Pennatulide view of 

 their origin be the true one, it is certain that the animal 

 that produces these curious rods is quite unknown to us, and 

 it is highly desirable that specimens of it should be 

 obtained. I have already requested Capt. Herd to com- 

 municate with Capt. Anderson on this subject, and trust 

 that on his next return from Barraud's Inlet he will bring 

 us the entire body of this \vonderful creature preserved in 

 spirits. I hope also that if any student of " N.VTURE " in 

 Washington territory may chance to read this article he 

 will not fail to exert himself and assist us in solving this 

 somewhat puzzling zoological problem. 



P. L Sci..\TER 



