PLATE CXYI. 
^ystema ; it is inserted by Dr. Turton in his translation of Gmelin 
®n the authority of Pennant. 
The length of our fish is about eighteen inches ; the body of a long 
3nd slender form ; not like that of an eel as wr iters describe, but agree- 
tng precisely with that of the common Gar-fish, (Esox belone,) The 
snout is subulate, fine, toothless, and slightly curving upwards *. 
The jaws are of unequal length, the lower being longest, and bend- 
,n g upwards at the tip, in which respect it differs from the figures 
°f Mr. Pennant and Mr. Rackett, in both of which the jaws appear 
straight and of equal length. Neither do the jaws when closed 
c xliibit that remarkable hiatus or gaping shewn in those two repre- 
sentations ; there is a kind of flexuosity in the shape of the mouth 
when open which might excite such an idea, but upon gently 
closing it the curvature in the form of one jaw will be found to cor- 
respond with the suture of the other, so that the specific character. 
Dr. Shaw obferves, that “ in a specimen figured in the work of Cepede the jaw* 
4re represented curving upwards, contrary to what has hitherto been observed; the 
specimen figured in tire work of Mr. Pennant, as well as that of Rondeletius, and the 
drawing by Mr. Rackett, have the jaws strait ” This is certainly true, ar.d it is there- 
^°rc to be presumed that the fishes from whence the account of the latter-mentioned 
w riters have heeu taken must have sustained some injury, or been misrepresented; for 
13 clear Cepede is right in representing the jaws curving upwards : it is indeed evi- 
ent ’ ^ rom t' 10 comparative shortness of the jaws both in the figure of Mr. Pennant and 
Yr. Ivackett, that neither could have been perfect, the beaks in the fish itself being 
®caily twice the length delineated by either. 
^ a could have likewise wished that the intersecting lines in the figure drawn by Mr. 
Rackett, in the Linntean Transactions, had been rendered lefs liable to misconception ; 
r Dr. Shaw, who apparently never had an opportunity of examining the fish, is entirely 
oy it, <• i a a , ; elegant drawing of this fish, (says Dr. Shaw) communicated. 
