s E 
Fishes of Massachusetts. 483 
pounds ; this specimen when perfect, undoubtedly 
weighed as much as 500 weight. The largest indi- 
vidual of which I have any certain knowledge, Mr. 
Anthony Holbrook, a fishmonger in Quincy market, 
aman of unquestionable veracity, and whose knowl- 
edge of our fishes is equal to that of any of our 
fishermen, tells me was taken at New Ledge, sixty 
miles S. E. of Portland, Me., in 1807; it weighed 
upwards of 600 pounds. The voracity of this spe- 
cies is proverbial. Pennant cites two examples of 
ships’ sounding leads having been swallowed by 
them; one of these individuals was afterwards cap- 
tured. 
The following description I have drawn up from 
a specimen 4 feet and 10 inches in length, e s 
78 pounds: 
Body elongated ; smooth, of a dark brown ade 
on the right side ; left side without spots. Length of 
the head to the length of the body as 1 to 4; lower 
jaw longer than the upper; jaws furnished with two 
rows of strong, sharp teeth ; the inner row larger and 
ineurved ; lips large and fleshy. Pupils of the eye 
black ; iride silvery ; ; largest diameter of the eye, 
two ind a half inches ; shortest diameter, two inches ; 
distance between the eyes, two inches.  Nostrils 
double ; anterior tubular, posterior larger. 
The Dorsal fin commences above the anterior por- 
tion of the eye, and terminates a short distance in 
front of the caudal fin; height of this fin in its mid- 
dle, to the height of the rays on a line opposite the 
base of the pectorals, as 6 to 1, 
+ p 
