CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 355 



example was found by some women at Filey Bay, 1796. About 

 the end of the century a similar fish was exhibited in New- 

 castle, and a drawing of it was made by Bewick, the celebrated 

 wood-engraver, which has been lost. Two fishes of the same 

 kind were captured in 1800, in a shallow pool at the outer Fame 

 Islands, one of which is said to have been eighteen feet long. 

 In 1796, one was got at Cullercoats, near Newcastle, and re- 

 corded by John Leech in 1849. In the year 1845 the Preventive 

 Service men observed a fish of this kind in a pool near Aln- 

 mouth. This fish was stated by Mr. George Tate to be sixteen 

 feet in length. A specimen was taken at Cullercoats, in March, 

 1849, and was exhibited in Newcastle and neighbouring towns, 

 and afterwards in London. Eventually this specimen was pre- 

 sented by Mr. Whitfield to the Newcastle Museum, where it is 

 still preserved. A long and interesting account of this rare fish 

 is given in the Transactions of the Tyneside Nat. Field Club, 

 Vol. I., p. 288, by Messrs. Hancock and Embleton. In 1850 

 another example was cast ashore on the Yorkshire coast, near 

 Bedcar. It was alive, but much mutilated, measured nearly 

 twelve feet, and weighed sixty -six pounds. Another example 

 was taken off the coast at Amble, opposite Coquet Island, on 

 March 8th, 1876. An account of this fish is given by Mr. J. 

 Wright in the Nat. Hist. Trans. N. D. & N'C, Yol. Y, p. 340. 

 It was alive when captured, and measured thirteen feet four and 

 a half inches, and was nine inches and three-quarters in the 

 deepest part. In this specimen the filaments in front of the 

 dorsal fin, and the long ventrals with an oval leaf-like expan- 

 sion at the end, were better preserved than usual. 



From the instances of the occurrence of this fish on our coast 

 and the adjacent parts of Yorkshire enumerated above, Banks' 

 Oar-fish cannot be considered the rarest straggler to our coast ; 

 and they shew that its home is as much in the Northern seas 

 as in those further South. A species very similar, if not really 

 identical, has been observed on the East Coast of Australia. S. 



