SLIMY SEA-SNAIL. 
291 
cimen which he kept alive for some time, Ekstrom 
writes: “When the fish left off swimming about in the 
vessel in which it was kept, it attached itself to the 
bottom, and drew the compressed part of the body 
tightly up to the left side, thus acquiring, when still, 
an almost spherical form.” This specimen was a female 
130 mm. long, which at the beginning of May con- 
tained running roe, “of a light carmine colour,” the 
eggs being slightly more than 1 millimetre in diameter. 
In April, 1849, in Bravik, Mr. G. von Yhlen took 
another female, in which the development of the eggs 
was equally far advanced. These instances give us an 
approximate indication of the spawning-season in more 
northern localities, when we remember that Sars, as 
we have mentioned above, found young specimens up 
to 15 mm. in length, swimming at the surface in Va- 
ranger Fjord, during the month of July. 
Collett found the food of the Common Sea-Snail 
to consist of small crustaceans and worms; Lilljeborg 
also found small shell-fish ( Bissoa ) in its stomach. 
According to Fabricius the fry of other fishes and sea- 
weed also form a part of its diet. It is of no greater 
economical importance to man than the preceding species, 
even if it be eatable in case of need, according to the 
account of Fabricius", the truth of which is, however, 
denied by Richardson 6 , of its employment among the 
Greenlanders. 
THE SLIMY SEA-SNAIL. 
CYCLOGASTER GELATINOSUS. 
Fig. 73. 
Distance between the vent and the tip of the snout less than j i of the length of the body. Distance betiveen the 
anal fin ami the vent more than 1 / s of that betiveen the former and, the tip of the snout. Only one nostril on 
each side, just in front of the eye, just above the middle of the latter or at its anterior upper corner. Bays of 
the dorsal fin from 50 to 55, of the anal fin from 44 to 48; both these fins posteriorly united to the caudal fin 
almost without visible division. Least depth of the tail about 3 % of the length of the base of the anal fin, which 
is more than V 2 the length of the body. Length of the caudal fin less than L/ 2 that of the head. Teeth in the 
cards of the mouth simple. Disk formed by the ventral fins equal in size to the eyes or slightly larger; the 
longitudinal diameter of the latter (in specimens about 60 mm. long) being about 6 or 7 % of the length of 
the body, from 27 to 33 % of the length of the head, or about 2 / 3 of the breadth of the interorbital space as 
far as this is covered by the skin. Snout blunt; its length about equal to that of the ventral disk. Length of 
the pectoral fins from the upper angle about 16 % of that of the body or 70 % of that of the head. Distance 
from the tip of the snout to the dorsal fin from about 24 to 28 % of the length of the body, to the ventral 
disk 11 or 12 %, and to the anal fin from about 32 to 35 %. Body flabby, very slimy, partly transparent and 
of a yellowish or reddish colour, thinly punctated with dark brown, chiefly on the dorsal side. 
Fig. 73. Gyclogaster gelatinosus, natural size, taken in the Skager Rack between Arendal and the Skaw at a depth of 350 — 370 fathoms, 
in July, 1879. Theei, and Forsstrand. 
Syn. Gyclopterus gelatinosus, Pall., Spicil. Zool., fasc. VII, p. 19, 
tab. Ill, figg. 1 — G: In., Zoogr. Ross. As., vol. Ill, p. 74; 
° “Editur coctus cum ovariis suis inter Scorpios,’’ Fn. Gr., p. 
b Fn. Bor. Amer., part. Ill, p. 264. 
R. hr. 6; D. 50—55; A. 44—48; P. 32—33; V. 6; 
U. a 1 + 10 + x; Vert. 60 — 64. 
137. 
