294 ACCOUNT OF A RIBBON FISH 
pansion on its posterior edge, increasing in width upwards some- 
thing like a peacock’s feather. 
The first ray is a pretty strong spine arising just within the 
frontal curve, the three next are very slender, and much closer 
together than the rest, and when we first saw the fish, united for 
4 or 5 inches (their length at that time) by a membrane; the 
next is as slender as the preceding, but rather farther 
apart; the three or four after this are nearly as strong as the 
first, the rest diminish in strength and length, and become uni- 
form with the rays of the dorsal fin. 
It is difficult for us to say whether the twelve front rays con- 
stituted a detached crest or formed merely the anterior continu- 
ation of the dorsal fin, though after careful and repeated exami- ~ 
nations we found shreds of membrane in each interval between 
them, and their bases also were connected with a continuous 
membrane. In the interval between the twelfth and thirteenth 
rays the remains of a membrane were found connecting the base 
of these rays, and their shafts were ragged and woolly looking, 
as if a membrane had been torn off from them. We are, there- 
fore, inclined to conclude that the crest was really a continuation 
of the dorsal fin and not a separate structure, though it is pro- 
bable enough that the ends of its rays may have been for some 
distance free and even furnished with a membrane on their pos- 
terior margin widening to the top, giving them the appear- 
ance of peacocks’ feathers as asserted by the fishermen. This 
probability is heightened by the fact of the head of the Gymne- 
trus from the Cornish coast being provided with two long rays 
having broad membranous expansions at their ends, which would 
justify a casual observer in comparing them in form to the above 
feathers. It is not unlikely besides that the second, third, fourth, 
and fifth rays, on account of their resemblance in delicacy to the 
ordinary fin-rays, may have terminated differently from the rest. 
The rays having been broken, we cannot say of ourselves whether 
they were uniform in size or not; but from what we have learnt 
by questioning those who saw the fish, we conclude that the 
middle rays were the longest, those in front and behind them 
