2398 Fishes. 



educated person saw it : they were all ignorant, illiterate men, who most likely knew 

 nothing further of a shark than that it was an animal with a huge mouth, capable of 

 discussing so many seamen at a bite, and whose teeth were peculiarly adapted for 

 amputating limbs. In the next place we find these witnesses agreeing in one most 

 absurd particular, viz., in the animal having six legs : on this point it is needless to 

 expatiate ; every one knowing anything of comparative anatomy must see at once the 

 impossibility of such a structure : moreover, even granting its possibility, it is at once 

 cancelled by Mr. Urquhart's figure of the sternum and scapulae with an ordinary fin 

 thereto attached (Wern. Mem. vol. i. p. 418): the third pair of appendages Dr. Fle- 

 ming, in his ' British Animals,' supposes were claspers. In the last place we may 

 notice one striking contradiction in the evidences: Thomas Fotheringhame seems to 

 have been astonished at such a large animal having such a narrow throat, — so narrow 

 indeed that it would not admit his hand ; while George Sherar would have had no 

 difficulty in putting his foot down it : and as there is nothing to prove that Thomas 

 Fotheringhame's hand was larger than George Sherar's foot, we are led to the con- 

 clusion that one or other must have made a mistake in his calculation. 



We might further suggest the improbability of any animal sixty feet long having 

 a head only seven inches in diameter, and we might even suspect the carpenter's foot- 

 rule of showing a decided taste for the marvellous ; but we must now conclude with 

 this single remark, that if the Stronsa animal was not a shark it was certainly not the 

 great sea-serpent, which, if it does exist, will most likely be allied to the Plesiosauri 

 of by-gone days, and to which the animal seen by the Rev. Mr. Maclean, Eigg 

 Island (Wern. Mem. vol. i. p. 442), seems to have borne a strong resemblance. — Jas. 

 C. Howden ; Musselburgh, February, 1849. 



Occurrence of the Mailed Gurnard (Peristedion malarmat) in Cornwall. — A spe- 

 cimen of this very rare British fish was taken in February, at the south-western en- 

 trance to Mount's Bay, about eight miles from the shore. It was taken in a trawl 

 net. It is llf inches in length : the colour is of a yellowish vermilion tint, fading to 

 a light flesh colour towards the abdomen. Mr. Yarrell's description of this fish is 

 very accurate. The edges of the nasal plates are finely serrated ; about half an inch 

 posterior to the inner margins of each is a stout sharp spine, and behind another 

 smaller one ; about half an inch behind these, and in the median line, are five others 

 closely aggregated. The margin of the orbit and the supra-orbital ridge are strongly 

 denticulated ; the superior ridge is continuous with the denticulated angles of the 

 body. Body octangular and cased in armour, with stout spines at each angle point- 

 ing posteriorly. The fin rays are — dorsal 7, 18; pectoral 10, 2; ventral 1, 4; anal 

 18 ; caudal 13. The tendrils of the first dorsal are very short. The first recorded 

 British specimen of this fish was taken in 1836 near Plymouth, and fell into the hands 

 of Dr. E. Moore, who communicated it to Mr. Yarrell. It was caught in deep water 

 over rocky ground, and, according to the trawler, is very rare. — R. Q. Couch ; Pen- 

 zance, March 2, 1849. 



Breeding of Trout by the Artificial Process. — Mr. Samuel Gurney, Jun., has 

 kindly given me some specimens of embryo trout raised by the artificial process so 

 fully described by Mr. Boccius (Zool. 2364). He informs me that the experiment 

 has been attended with the most entire success. The little animals are extremely 

 curious, and differ fully as much from the adult trout as the young of various Crus- 

 tacea do from their parent : they consist mainly of a transparent oval gelatinous mass, 

 very evidently the yelk of the egg, and the fish itself is attached to the upper surface 



