104 
SILVERY HAIR-TAIL. 
towing-net, and even now without a place in the 
ichthyological system, much more resembled a sea- 
serpent than Regalecus. It was scaleless and had 
sharj^-pointed teeth, inclined backwards like those 
of a serpent. The body was ophioid and spotted on 
the sides ; the eye was large and conspicuous ; the 
jaws were very long, the gape was wide ; and the 
back was furnished with a series of rays which 
« 
extended, crest-like, from the nape to the end of 
the tail, which had no caudal fin. 
There is a figure of it, from my drawing, in the 
“ Zoology of the Samarang.” Who shall say it w;as 
not the fry of a very formidable spar-snapping sea 
monster ? But my present ol)ject is to show^ that 
Swainson is in error, w^hen he says of the ribbon- 
fishes, These meteoric fishes aj^pear to live in the 
gi’catest depths,” &c. My^ experience to the con- 
trary is founded on the silvery hair-tail (Trichiurus 
lepturus, Linn.), one of the largest of the flattened 
small-scaled fishes. At Staunton Island, Shan- 
tung, we obtamed large numbers, averaging five 
feet in length, including the slender caudal filament. 
