TAKEN OFF THE COAST OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 303 
have a copy taken of it. Through the kindness of Mr. Couch, 
we have been favoured with a reduced copy of the above figure, 
made by Mr. Thomas Q. Couch ; and in the letter accompanying 
the drawing, Mr. Couch states that Mr. Chirgwin assured him 
that his figure was the only true original, the fish having been 
drawn ashore not far from his house ; that, however they might 
differ, all other figures were copied from his, and that the note 
written on his figure is the only one originally made from the 
specimen. Mr. Couch further says, that he has no doubt, from 
circumstantial evidence, that the figure and account of the G. 
Hawkenii were communicated to Bloch, by a Mr. John Hawkins, 
brother of the late Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart. Mr. Haw- 
kins himself, as Mr. Couch concludes from Mr. Chirgwin’s re- 
marks, did not actually inspect the fish. The copier of the figure 
sent to Bloch, appears to Mr. Couch to have committed a great 
mistake by attempting to correct one which he supposed to have 
been made by the original draftsman, and the mistake consists 
principally in his having removed the two filaments in front of 
the dorsal fin to the situation of the ventral fin, thus making 
four filaments there instead of two. The same mistake appears 
to have been made with regard to the figure of the G. Hawkenis 
in Yarrell’s ‘ Fishes, that figure being, as Mr. Yarrell informs 
our friend Mr, Alder, incorrect as regards the number of ventral 
filaments, and the addition of the caudal fin. 
It appears therefore that the G. Hawkenii of Bloch, is simply 
the fish caught at Newlyn incorrectly copied. In the notes ap- 
pended to the drawing sent us by Mr. Couch, and whieh are 
copied from the original, are merely mentioned the date of the 
capture as above and the measurements ; “ its length without the 
tail, which it wanted, was 83 ft., its extreme breadth 103 in., and 
its thickness but 23in. 
Tts proportions therefore, allowing the tail to be somewhat 
deficient, come pretty near to those of our fish ; if the drawing 
however, is to be relied on, it differs from ours in having only two 
filaments from the head with expanded feather-like extremities, 
and. in having the ventral processes like those of the head. The 
fins also are crimson, and the body is marked all over by delicate 
