308 ACCOUNT OF A RIBBON FISH 
we are happy in being able to state that that gentleman has ex- 
pressed his intention of presenting this rare fish to the museum 
of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and 
Neweastle upon Tyne. 
Since writing the above we have received a pamphlet entitled 
“An Account of the Rare Fish, Regalecus Glesne, caught off Cul- 
lercoats,” &c. In it we find a copy of a figure of a Gymnetrus 
taken at Newlyn, in Cornwall, on Saturday, 23rd day of February, 
1788. This figure, with descriptive notes appended, is bound up 
at the end ofa copy of Pennant’s ‘ British Zoology’ in the Banks- 
ian Library. Mr. J. E. Gray supposes this figure and notes to 
be the authority for the various descriptions and figures of the 
Cornish specimen of G. Hawkenit. The Banksian figure, though 
possessing a good general resemblance to a Gymmnetrus, differs so 
widely from the figure we have been favoured with by Mr. Couch, 
that we believe neither of them to have been a copy of the other, 
and the differences in the measurements that accompany the 
figures are such as to strengthen this belief; the length of the 
Banksian specimen is said to be 8 ft. 10in., Mr. Couch’s 83 ft. 
The depth of the former is 10 in,, of the latter 103 in. ; the 
thickness of the former 24 in., of the latter 2?in. These dis- 
crepancies could scarcely have arisen from errors of copying, but 
are more likely to be the result of examinations by different ob- 
servers. It would therefore appear that there must either have 
been more than one fish caught on the Cornish coast, or else that 
different drawings and descriptions have been made of the same 
specimen. 
The figure in the pamphlet does not appear to us materially 
to elucidate the species of the Cornish fish ; indeed the details 
both of the figures and descriptions are so imperfect that they 
may quite as readily be taken for the G. Gladius as for the 
G. Banskii ; the spotting of Mr. Chirgwin’s drawing brings 
strongly to mind the markings of the G. Gladius. 
We are glad to be able, from a letter of Mr. Yarrell in the 
above pamphlet, to add to the list of specimens now put on record 
one which was cast on shore alive at the village of Crovie, near 
