288 Transactions.— Zoology. e. 
were the longest, those in front and behind them gradually decreasing in 
length. The rays of the crest are more closely set than those of the rest of 
the dorsal fin, which stand about half an inch apart.” 
Lütken,* describing a drawing of a specimen from the Faroe Islands, 
obtained in 1852, and probably referable to the same species, states that . 
immediately in front of the true dorsal fin “there were two high and pointed 
nuchal fins, the total number of rays in which cannot be stated exactly,” 
but is probably about 11. None of these rays exhibit terminal dilatations. 
Von Haast says of R. pacificus (pl. xxiv., fig. 1) “the first nine spines 
form a crest. These spines enlarge at their termination to a lobe, as shown 
by the two only perfect ones when the fish was obtained; they cover a space 
of 2:5 inches. The first of these spines is broken off at 8 inches from the 
base ; it is the stoutest of the whole series. No. 2 is considerably thinner, 
and 7 inches long. It is one of the complete ones. The three next spines 
-(8, 4, and 5) were all broken off at 4 to 6 inches, and were nearly as thick 
as the first. From here they get thinner, the thickness of the seventh 
having only the thickness of the second. This spine, which is entire, is 
7:75 inches long, and has, like the second, a lobe at its termination. The 
eighth is still thinner, and broken off 1 inch from its base, and there is only 
a fragment of the ninth, which is not thicker than one of the rays of the 
dorsal fin proper. All of these spines, which have minute hooks directed 
upwards on their anterior and posterior edges, are united with each other 
by a small mémbrane about +45 inch high. They had, like the two ventral 
rays, a red colour, very bright in their upper portion when the fish was first 
obtained, which, however, gradually faded to a dull light pink.” Nothing 
is said as to the form of the lobes terminating the two perfect spines, but 
the latter appear from the figure to have been merely bluntly clavate. It 
is further stated that the proper dorsal fin begins half an inch behind the 
last of these rays. This statement would scem to imply that the two dorsals 
were separate in Haast’s specimen. 
In the Nelson specimen the crest is thus described by Travers : Í“ from 
the back of the head rose several rigid circular spines, about eighteen 
inches long, three-quarters of an inch in diameter at the base, tapering to 
a point, curving slightly backwards, hollow and bristling along their whole 
surface with small spines directed upwards. These long pigs appear to 
have been very brittle, as they broke off short when th struck the 
rock. The person who saw the fish run ashore described spines [sic] 
as presenting the appearance of three small masts to a boat, through the whole 
length of the fish, disposed in pairs as follows,—one pair just below the back and 
* Ann. and Mag. N.H., Ser. 5, vol. xi., p. 181. 
