350 Zoological N. Y. Zoological Society. [1;19 



was in fair condition and in the hands of a good taxidermist 

 was capable of making a fine mount. Captain Thompson in- 

 formed me that he was in communication with such a man, and 

 that in the meantime he was preserving the skin from decom- 

 position by drenching it several times a day with strong brine 

 and by sprinkling it with formalin. 



The general color of the skin was brownish with large pale, 

 white spots, perhaps as large as a silver dollar. No longitud- 

 inal bars, such as will be described later, and no short transverse 

 markings, were noticed. The spread of the tail fin was so great 

 that a tall man could stand under the tip of the upper lobe. The 

 mouth and jaws, which had been cut out with the skin, were 

 very large, so large that a man could have gotten within them. 

 The teeth, which were in a band about two inches wide in each 

 jaw, were very minute, prickle-like, recalling forcibly the old- 

 fashioned "wool cards." Captain Thompson emphasized the fact 

 that "the fish had no bones," save the backbone, a number of 

 segments of which he showed me. These were cartilaginous, 

 about five inches in diameter, bi-concave in form, and were of 

 a yellowish-brown color, apparently due to the oil contained in 

 them. 



During the fall and winter of 1912-1913, I was in somewhat 

 infrequent communication with Captain Thompson, who very 

 kindly agreed to give me the data about the capture of the fish, 

 but he was so engrossed in getting the skin mounted for exhibi- 

 tion for the winter tourists that he did not find time to do so. 

 The mounting of this skin was a Herculean task, and was only 

 done after some months' incessant labor." This work was done 

 by and under the direction of Mr. J. S. Warmbath, a profes- 

 sional taxidermist, of Washington City. The post-card figures 

 of it, kindly sent me by Captain Thompson, with permission to 

 publish, show that the work was well done. 



On April 26, 1913, at the meeting of The North Carolina 

 Academy of Science, I exhibited the photographs sent me by 

 Captain Thompson and read a short paper on this fish as a pre- 

 liminary report. This was published in Science for August 22. 

 On May 3, Doctor Hugh M. Smith read a letter describing the 



^It may be noted here that in preparing the skin nearly half a ton 

 of shavings was removed from it. 



