THE CHIM^RID^. 



125 



was contented to purchase it at a price so extravagant_, 

 that a single tureen, foiTning the mere prelude to his 

 repastj cost him the sum of 300 rubles*; a sum, we 

 may add_, which, had it been expended in promoting 

 the happiness of his miserable serfs, might have called 

 down blessings on the head of this worthless sensualist. 

 (111.) The third division is represented by the Chi- 

 M^RiD^, or sea monsters {fig. 9-)} so called from the fan- 



tastic shape of their heads, which are ornamented, if this 

 term may be used, with a singular hoe-shaped appendage 

 tipt with spines, and analogous to a crest, upon their snout: 

 in other respects they have the " closest relation," as it 

 has been well observed, to the sharks ; from which, how- 

 ever, they essentially differ, in having a still smaller 

 mouth : the palatine and tympanic bones are merely rudi- 

 mentary, and suspended to the sides of the muzzle, which 

 is much advanced, while the upper jaw is represented 

 only by the vomer. The ChimtBra borealis {fig, Q, a) is 

 the chief of three species, remarkable for the singularity 

 of its appearance, which gives as much the idea of a 

 reptile as of a fish. It grows to three or four feet long. 

 The head is very large and obtuse; but the body termi- 

 nates gradually into a long and slender filament. In 



* Gen. Zool. vol. v. p. 377. 



