246 
TEACHYPTEEU8. 
The body lengthened, very thin, naked; eye lateral, cleft of the mouth 
Bmall. Dorsal fin long, with a partially separate and elevated portion 
in front. No anal fin; ventral fins on the throat, well developed; tail 
out of the lengthened direction of the body. 
DEALFISH. 
V<xagmar, Loudon; Magazine of Natural History, vol. 
iv, p. 215, the figure by Dr. Fleming, copied 
by Mr. YarreU, 1st. ed., vol. i, p. 191, but 
rejected for another, 2nd. ed., vol. i, p. 210. 
Gymnetrus arcticus, Jenyns; Manual, p. 372. 
Trachypterus arcticus. GuNiiiEa; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 395. 
The Dealfisli finds its home in the icy portion of the northern 
ocean, and probably in its deepest recesses ; from which it emerges 
only on rare occasions, when it visits or is thrown on the shores 
of Iceland, Norwmy, and Finland; and our knowledge of it in 
the first place is due to the inhabitants of the country first 
named. But the substance of this fish, as of some others of this 
family, is so tender and brittle, that examples have rarely been 
secured in a perfect condition, for which reason a great degree 
of obscurity remained for a long time on some of its characters; 
and it is only within a few years that a definite description 
and correct representation of its shape have been obtained; so 
as to decide in what genus of the Ribband fishes it ought to 
be placed. 
Its claim to be considered a British fish was first rendered 
certain by Dr. Fleming, on the authority of a specimen which 
was sent to him from the island of Sunday — one of the Orkney 
group; where it was caught alive, and where two or three ex- 
amples had been seen within a short space of time. The specimen 
examined was three feet in length, but by the time it had reached 
Dr. Fleming, it had become so injured and broken that the 
figure drawn from it bears little likeness to what we now know 
