168 
CARl’ER. 
larger size, one example measuring twenty-one inches, and the 
weight of another was four pounds, and in plumpness it much 
excels the Carter. The comparative breadth of the former is 
also more considerable, being equal to the length from the 
snout to the angle of the curve of the lateral line; while in 
the Carter the same breadth (or depth) is only equal to the 
length from the snout to the extent of two thirds of the 
pectoral fin, the breadth of the body being also carried 
backward more considerably towards the tail. In the Sail Fluke 
the measure of the head, from the snout to the extreme 
border of the gill-cover, is a little more than a third of the 
length of the body as it ends in the insertion of the rays of 
the tail, which exceeds a like measure in the Carter, in which 
fish the middle rays of the tall are less extended. 
But the difference between these fishes is particularly to be 
noticed in the difference of situation of their ventral fins, the 
one or two first rays of the anal fin in the Sail Fluke being 
embraced within the ventrals, which also conceal the vent; 
whereas in a Carter of the same length the space between the 
last rays of the ventrals and the first of the anal is about 
half an inch. And this circumstance, with the measurement in 
the Sail Fluke, is the more worthy of notice, as both of my 
specimens were alike in this respect, while the figure engraved 
in Sir John Kichardson’s (third) “Supplement to Yarrell’s 
British Fishes,” represents a space between the ventral and 
anal fins. 
For the better distinguishing between these fishes we add a 
particular description of the Carter: — The extreme length of 
the specimen was eighteen inches; the depth, about the middle 
of the body, and exclusive of the fins, six inches; from the 
point of the lower jaw to the hindmost border of the gill-cover 
four inches and a quarter. Gape wide; beneath the lower jaw 
a firm, pointed, angular process. Several rows of conical, 
somewhat incurved teeth, with a vacancy among them at the 
symphysis of the jaw; a very small patch of teeth in the 
palate, with a pair that are larger than those in the jaws. 
Body thin; head bony; eyes large, the lowermost moderately 
prominent, the upper sunk within a wide socket. Body and 
head, with upper part of dorsal and anal fins, covered with 
scales, which are ciliated at the edges; anterior nostril having 
