BANKS 8 OARFISH. 
257 
frater, and came with a gentle lateral undulating motion towards 
them, shewing its crest and a small portion of the head above 
water; they struck it with a rod, to which was attached a hook, 
used for landing fish; on which it made oflf with a vigorous and 
vertical undulating motion, and quickly disappeared. But in a 
short time it again appeared, and they found it again lying on 
its side. A second blow tore the tender flesh, and the fish 
again escaped; but on coming to it a third time, the two young 
men placed their arms round the fish, and lifted it into the 
boat. When brought on .shore, from rough handling, the fins 
had become much torn. Its colour was a uniform silvery grey, 
resembling bright tinfoil, or white Dutch metal, eseept a few 
irregular dark spots and streaks towards the anterior part of the 
body. On closer inspection the remains of a bright iridescence 
were seen about the pectoral fin and head, the blue tint pre- 
dominating. In shape the fish presents somewhat the form of 
a double-edged sword blade, being exeessively compressed; its 
greatest thickness is decidedly nearer the ventral than the dorsal 
border; from the thickest part it slopes to each border, the dorsal 
being the sharper. The length of the fish was twelve feet three 
inches, the mouth not being projected forward ; immediately behind 
the gills it measures eight inches and a half in depth, and from 
this point it gradually enlarges to a distance of upwards of two 
feet further back, where it attains its greatest depth of eleven 
inches and a fourth, which dimension remains the same for a 
foot and a half, and then diminishes to the end of the dorsal 
fin, where the depth is three inches. At the part of greatest 
depth the thickness measures two inches and three fourths. 
The fishermen stated that when this fish was first taken it 
was all over of a brilliant silvery iridescent hue, which soon 
faded. The skin is covered with a silvery matter, in which no 
scales were visible, but which is readily detached and adheres 
to any thing that touches it. Round the posterior margin of 
the preoperculum was a broadish dusky mark, and near the 
top of the head above the eye a crescentic mark of a dark 
iridescent blue colour; besides which there were on the side 
of the body several narrow dusky black slightly waved lines 
distant from each other, and obliquely inclined from before 
backward. Of these eight or nine were above the lateral line, 
and of unequal length; and below this line they were more 
VOL. 11. ^ ^ 
