PLATE CXX. 
length of two feet. Mr. Pennant speaks of one that weighed five 
pounds and a quaiter. This fish is of an inconceivable splendour 
when alive and first taken out of the water, at which period it 
it emits a vivid phosphoric light. The male is of a more slender 
form than the female, and is also distinguished by having the trails- 
verse fascise or bands of black on the back and sides nearly straight, 
while in the female those bands are elegantly undulated. 
The excellence of the Mackarel as an article of food is so gene- 
rally admitted as to require no comment. Most commonly it is 
eaten fresh ; in the county of Cornwall, upon the coasts of which 
it appears in immense shoals during the summer, it is occasionally 
salted. The Mackarel maintained considerable reputation among 
the epicures of ancient Rome, who, among other articles of luxury, 
prepared a celebrated garum or pickle ot this fish, which they 
distinguished, according to Pliny, by the title of Garian Sociorum. 
The number of rays in the fins of the specimen of the Jvlackarel 
selected for representation were as follow : jn the first dorsal fin 
ten rays; second thirteen: pectoral thirteen: ventral six: anal 
eleven ; and caudal twenty-two. 
VoL. V. 
r 
