Mr Eobert Brown on Astrophyton scutatum. 371 
narrow inlet of the Island of Disco (lat. 68° 58' 42'' N., long. 
53° 13' W.), appears to be a very likely place for it. It is 
almost opposite Cape Kater where I got it, and where it 
appears to be pretty abundant ; for broken pieces occasion- 
ally came up on the whale-lines afterwards. 
A curious idea seems to have prevailed in Bishop Erick 
Pontopiddan's day regarding this animal. After mention- 
ing in his excellent '* Natural History of Norway," part ii. 
pp. 179-80 (Lond. 1755, English trans.), that it is rarely got 
on the Norwegian coast, and is called Soe-Navle by the Nor- 
wegians, and Soe-Soel or Sea Sun by the Dutch sailors, who 
frequently find it in the West Indies, according to Geo. 
Marcgrave's account, in his Historia Naturalis Brazilise," 
lib. iv. cap. xxii., he states, in all good faith, the following 
extraordinary notion, though, with a lack of credulity he has 
hardly been given credit for, repudiating it :— This strange 
and wonderful fish or korstrold is said to be only the young, or 
perhaps only the germ, of the roe of that great and frightful 
monster, which is here called Kraake [Kraken Anglice\. But 
as far as I could get information from several fishermen, who 
all agree in their accounts, this cannot possibly be true." 
Though a rare animal, this " Korstrold," from its bizarre 
form, seems to have attracted the attention of all the " enge- 
nuous" naturalists of an early date, as well as more modern, 
and to have received (after a fashion not peculiar to our 
time) a variety of names, — viz., Sternfiscli, J. C. Adelung, 
GescMcte, &c., p. 381, tab. xvii. fig. (1768) ; " Stella ma- 
rina I. lonstoni, Insect., tab. xxiv. fig. 11" (fide Fab.) ; 
Stella arhorescens (Eondoletius and Gesner) ; Asterias ca'put 
medusm (Linnseus, Muller, &c.) ; Asterias arhorescens (Pen- 
nant) ; Euryale verucossum (Lamarck) ; Euryale scutatum 
(Blainville), &c. 
Most of the early authors give distinguishable figures of 
it. That of Pontopiddan is the best. Among modern, that 
of Professor E. Forbes is the only good portrait of it, but, 
from its want of colouring, his figure does not do full justice 
to the varied hues of the starfish. The coloured figures in 
Griffith's beautiful edition of Cuvier's Begne Animal, as also 
in the ^'CrocJiard Edition" of same work, are mere pictures. 
