326 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
and also Layard’s figure of the Begalecus from the 
Cape of Good Hope 0 render it probable that the high 
crest or mane of “the great Sea-serpent’’ is formed in 
the manner shown in Valenciennes’s figure of Begalecus 
gladius, and consists of two parts, the one being formed 
by the first five rays (the first ray being the longest 
and thickest according to Wright (1. c.) and ending in 
a fine, filiform tip, the other four slender and gradu- 
ally decreasing in length). The second part consists of 
from 9 to 12 rays, the first of which is the longest, 
the others gradually diminishing in length, and all of 
them with foliate tips or, according to Day, with the 
membrane behind the tip of each ray elongated into a 
filament which in shape resembles the dorsal filaments 
of the Dory, but is shorter than they. All the latter 
rays are probably united, at the base at least, to each 
other as well as to the true dorsal fin. 
In the singular, long rays of the ventral fins, which 
remind us of the juvenile stages of Trachypterus , the 
foliate, membranous extension of the tip, according to 
Naalsoe and Collett, is triangular and trilobate. This 
description also agrees closely with Layard’s figure, 
according to which, as in Valenciennes’s- Begalecus 
gladius , there also appears a triangular dermal flap on 
the inner side of the ray, the distance between this flap 
and the base of the ray being twice that between it and 
the tip of the latter. In spite of the variation to which 
the length of the ventral rays is apparently subject, 
their tip, to judge by Lindrotii’s specimen, always 
extends at least beyond the vent. 
The length of the pectoral fins, according to Han- 
cock and Embleton as well as Wright, is a third 
greater than the diameter of the eye, but according to 
Lindrotii, equal to the latter and also to the thickness 
of the head behind the eyes 6 . According to Hancock 
and Embleton these fins are colourless c . 
The average distance between the vent and the tip 
of the snout in Atlantic specimens is rather more than 
40 % of the length of the body, and the distance be- 
tween the former and the middle of the hind margin of 
the gill-cover (behind the head) is somewhat more than 
34 % of the length of the body: but into these measure- 
ments there enters a factor in most cases obscure, viz. 
the total length of the body. The King of the Herrings 
has not always been found under so favourable cir- 
cumstances as in the above cases, where it has been 
possible to lift the entire fish into a boat or, as in the 
case of Lindroth’s specimen from Hitteren, to discover it 
soon after it has come ashore. The fish has generally 
been found dead and in a damaged condition among 
the breakers on the beach. From the structure of the 
end of the tail in the best-preserved specimens it ap- 
pears that the tail is almost invariably broken during 
life, but heals again, leaving the surface of the fracture 
in a fairly characteristic S-curve, as has been the case 
in the specimens of Hancock and Embleton, Lindrotii 
and others. Furthermore, as Collett has fully de- 
monstrated, this fracture may recur repeatedly, or, at 
all events, a larger part than usual may lie broken off, 
in which case it is of course still more difficult to 
arrive at the total length of the bodyL 
The remark we have made with regard to the shape 
of the body during life in the preceding genus, also 
applies to Begalecus. It is undoubtedly much more 
terete than in the specimens preserved in spirits as we 
see them in the museums. Wright found the greatest 
thickness of the body in his specimen to be about 3 4 1 ,/ 2 
% of the greatest depth. According to Lindrotii the 
corresponding proportion in the Hitteren specimen was 
25 %, and in the Crovie specimen, according to Richard- 
son, 23 %. In the Burholm specimen I find the greatest 
thickness of the body to lie only slightly more than 
12 % of the greatest depth. A variation so considerable 
— from V 3 to Vs — can be explained only by the 
loose structure of the body and the different extent to 
which the various specimens have shrunk. The dorsal 
edge is thin and sharp, the greatest thickness being 
situated in the lowest third of the body. 
In Norway, according to Collett, 13 specimens 
of the King of the Herrings have been found at differ- 
ent spots along the entire coast line, between 1740 
and 1883. Most of them, however, were found off the 
south coast, during the spring Herring-fishery. The 
Museum of Copenhagen possesses a specimen from the 
Faroe Islands. From Scotland and the north-east of 
England 20 specimens are known, found between the 
a Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1868, p. 320. 
b In the Australian Regalecus, according to McCoy, the length of the pectoral fins is J / 3 less than the diameter of the eye, but 
equal to the length of their base, just as in the Atlantic species, according to Lindkoth and Weight. 
c White in the Australian Regalecus , according to McCoy. 
d In the 1 Australian specimen described by McCoy the end of the tail was almost, pointed, but still imperfect, and in this respect this 
specimen is the most nearly perfect of all. Of the position of the vent, however, McCoy does not say a single word. 
