much like a lien's egg, as transparent as clear glass 

 though with a rosy tinge, its outlines barely distin- 

 guishable as it floats just below the surface; its sides 

 spanned with eight living rainbows whose prismatic 

 changes are indescribably beautiful. 



Another bucket has some specimens of the beautiful 

 Staurophora or "cross-bearer" a broad, limpid disk, 

 displaying a white Greek cross which at a distance seems 

 floating unsupported in the water. A group at another 

 table are mounting sea-mosses, dexterously transferring 

 them to paper with their branches as gracefully exten- 

 ded as when afloat in their native element. Prof. Ver- 

 rill is the presiding genius of the place, each specimen 

 passes under his eye, and the unique ones are takerito 

 his desk, where midnight always finds him absorbed in 

 his researches, forgetful of hard days work just past 

 and the new one just beginning. The studies made 

 here are only preliminary, the final work being done 

 in the Professor's own laboratory at New Haven, with 

 the aid of the extensive suites of specimens collected 

 in former years . Frater Aquarius 



THE ORANGE FILE-FISH. 



Ceratacanthus aurantiacus, {Mttchill) Gill. 



H'dq'rs U. S. Com. op Fish and Fisheries, ) 

 Noank, Conn., Aug. 24, 1874. ) 



The following item was clipped from the New Lon- 

 don Telegram of the 25th ult. : 



"The fish-laden smack 'Fashion,' which arrived here 

 to-day from Montauk, included in its cargo an inhabi- 

 tant of the briny deep, the like of which the fishermen 

 say they never saw or heard of before. This new fish 

 weighs from two to three pounds, has very large eyes, 

 a mouth like that of a monkey, is variegated in color — 

 white and blue predominating, — and in shape resembles 

 the flat-fish. The 'Fashion' is at Bolles & Benhams' 

 wharf, and has been visited by quite a number of people 

 whose curiosity was excited by stories of the new 

 comer." 



Of course this story excited the curiosity of the 

 party at Noank, for, unlike most newspaper an- 

 nouncements of this character, the paragraph did 

 not bear on its face the marks of a canard. 

 Visiting New London we soon fourM our way 

 to the fish market— a place to which the instincts of 

 a naturalist lead him almost the instant he reaches a sea- 

 port town. There, lazily disporting themselves in an 

 open bass car near the wharf, we were shown the 

 strangers, which were, as Professor Baird had predicted, 

 orange file-fishes. I had never before seen the species 



cu^$ i.J_. iv>^ 



