AKCTIC CHIMERA. 
147 
first view appear unnatural, and bear little likeness to any- 
thing found in the generality of fishes. 
In its body, although not more than three feet long, it has 
much resemblance to a Shark. It is compressed in a slight 
degree at the sides, and lengthened, and rapidly diminishes 
from the pectoral fins to the end of the tail. The skin is 
pliant, smooth, and covered with scales so small as not to be 
sensible to the touch, but they are so bright and silvery as 
to cause the whole surface to shine. In some cases there are 
brown patches scattered over this surface, by which the 
brightness is rendered more conspicuous. The large head is 
of a pyramidal shape, ending in a point at the muzzle, the 
top of which is about the same height as the eyes, which are 
large; and near them is the lateral line, which is white, 
sometimes edged with brown, and on each side reaching to 
the middle of the tail, where it descends below the lower 
portion of the body, to be joined with the corresponding line 
on the other side. Near the head the lateral line divides into 
several waved branches, one of which passes over the back to 
meet a branch of the line from the other side. Two other 
branches pass round the eye and meet at the snout. A fourth 
proceeds to the corner of the mouth, and a fifth passes in a 
crooked direction under the last-named along the lower surface 
of the snout, and becomes mixed with its fellow on the other- 
side. The surface of the body is soft and flexible, folded on 
the lower portion, and furnished with numerous openings for 
the supply of mucus. 
The pectoral fins are large, falciform, having at their root 
a fleshy base. The dorsal fin rises by a long, firm, three- 
cornered spine, which is notched along its hinder edge. This 
fin becomes suddenly lower and then again wide, to the space 
opposite the vent. There is a very small space between it 
and the second dorsal, the rays of which are about the same 
length as those which end the first, but which become lower 
gradually to the tail, where they end. In some instances, 
however, this interval between the fins does not exist, so that 
some naturalists reckon three fins in the space along the back 
’^b02*0 others mention only one. line tail ends m a long and 
very slender filament. The anal fins are two, of which the 
first is very short and slightly falciform, beginning below the 
