Fishe 



4595 



fish. The fishermen described the flesh on being cut as much resembling a piece of 

 highly salted bacon, i.e. red with salt or saltpetre: they said its weight was " pretty 

 well on to 60 stone," and that three strong men could, with difficulty, move it over 

 from one side to the other. My informant had shown one of these men Mr. Yarrell's 

 figure of the common tunny, in his ' British Fishes,' which he at once pronounced to 

 be the identical, aud to him unknown, species. He also showed me the tail, which di- 

 rectly confirmed my supposition of its being a tunny. This was of a very regular 

 crescent-shape, with one-half or division exactly similar in curvature to the other : it 

 had 18 rays in each half, = 36 in the entire caudal fin or apparatus ; and between the 

 two divisions and sides a cartilaginous keel was well defined. The width between the 

 tips of the crescent, or from one tip of the tail to the other, I found to measure 

 2 ft. 8£ in. Mr. Pennant, in his « British Zoology,' (p. 362, vol. iii. edit. 1812) has 

 described a large tunny, which had been captured in Iuverary, when he was there, in 

 1769, the tail of which, he says, " was in form of a crescent, and measured 2 feet 

 7 inches between tip and tip." If, therefore, the wide spreading of the tail be any true 

 or uniform character, from which an estimate of the size of the fish could be fairly 

 taken, the Tees specimen would be evidently larger than that recorded by Pennant. 

 I then requested my informant to inquire, when he next saw the fishermen, if they had 

 observed any small appendages or finlets on the body, where it tapered towards the 

 tail, as this seemed to me to be the only character wanting to decide what little doubt 

 could remain in my mind as to the identity of the species. Next, on my third visit to 

 him at Stockton, on January 5th, 1855, he, to my great satisfaction, exhibited to me 

 two strips of the skin cut from the back and belly, with these finlets attached, which 

 of course determined the species beyond all question. The number of spinous finlets 

 or fin-like appendages on the skin from the back amounted to eight, whilst the number 

 of those from underneath was nine ; but I know not whether all of them had been 

 carefully saved. Yet, from the descriptions of different naturalists, it is clear that these 

 spurious finlets vary in number, for Linnaeus and Fleming reckon them " utrinque 

 octo ;" Artede and Cuvier " octo seu novem ;" Gronovius writes " utrinque novem ;" 

 and Jenyns " nine above and below." Also Pennant, in the Inverary specimen, makes 

 them "eleven above and ten below." May these finlets increase in number, as the 

 fish itself increases in size and age ? Their colour was of a dirty yellow, edged with 

 dark brown or black. Of the other fins that were at the same time shown to me I need 

 make no mention, except indeed of the 

 pectoral, which was remarkable from 

 its extremity being cleft or divided, and 

 which evidently (from the age and en- 

 tireness of the strong black skin) had 

 not been recently done, if accidentally 

 done in its origin. The annexed dia- 

 gram 1 represents its form, with the 

 plain skin devoid of rays between the 

 cleft, whilst 2 gives the form of the pec- 

 toral fin from Pennant, and 3 that as 

 figured in Donovan's plate 5. The 

 total length of this pectoral fin was 12£ 



inches, and the number of rays was 31 or 32, according as one, which appeared double 

 or branched into two at a little distance from its base, be counted one or two : the 



