VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 91 



bigger than the upper part of a little finger. It is crystal line 

 white ; the nerves and arms are hardly discernible ; near the eyes 

 the colour is darker, sometimes pink. In the body of one of these 

 animals we could distinctly see through a quarter of an inch 

 microscope : — fourteen very small crabs, squillas, or sea-fleas, some 

 of them were still perfect, some half dissolved ; four very small 

 Mantile, and a little excrement like byssus. 



The plate-shaped body of the Medusa porphita drifted past 

 in thousands to day, but their blue arms and some parts were 

 already rotten ; all were dead. Sjwus ruber, a fish nearly one 

 and a half hands long and two hands wide, was caught with the 

 angle ; for bait they took a little flesh of the shark. I made the 

 following description of it : — 



The mouth had a double round lip and was of medium size 

 without beard. The teeth were all small and regular, and the 

 gums behind the teeth were also sharp. Above the mouth it had 

 an oblong- broad hole in the bone which was covered with skin. 

 The nostrils were a little distance apart and round ; above the 

 nostrils there were two other holes, oblong and a little larger 

 than the former. The cover of the gill was divided into three 

 parts, the third part being- only small and beginning at the edge 

 of the second one ; the edges were plain the second and third 

 ended in a soft skin protruding a little. The gill rays were 

 seven in number, their skin being white and the rays them- 

 selves were red. The gills themselves were four in number ; 

 at their inner edge, they had some double skin-like bones, 

 looking like a comb, they stood apart, were white, bent in at 

 the edges, rather large and sharp at the inner flat side. The 

 first row of these bones was long-er than the gills themselves, 

 while the other rows wei^e only short. The forehead was elevated 

 rather flat and round, covered with a very smooth skin. The 

 tongue is round at the end, thin, and only rough at its base. 



The eyes were quite protruding-, extraordinarily big, the iris 

 was bright red and sparkling as if made from some metal, the 

 pupil was black and big. The breast fins were longish pointed, 

 they had thirteen rays. The fins at the stomach were shorten- 

 and had only six rays. The back was covered with fins, consist- 

 ing of twenty-four rays the front ones being pointed ten the rest 

 ending in a soft skin. The hindmost fins had fourteen rays, those 

 furthest back were somewhat thinner and smaller ; the others had 



