40S 
GASTTIQ-B-RANCHUS. \ 
The mouth terminal, oval, with tendrils; no eyes. Body lengthened, 
lax. Breathing holes a pair, near each other, on the lower part of the 
body at about the first third of its length. 
i 
BOEER. 
MYXTNE. HAGFlSir. RAMPER EEL. POISON RAMPER. 
Myxino glutinosa, Ltuii.®us. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. Ifit. 
“ “ Jenyns; Manual, p. 523. 
Gadrohranclius cacus, Bloch. TnRTON’.s Linuinns. Cuvier. 
“ “ Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 612. 
“ “ Its internal structure — Bloch; Schneider, 
pi. 104; and Yarrell. 
This creature bears so little resemblance to a fish that 
several eminent writers, and among them Linnaeus, have judged 
it proper to class it among the worms; and although on closer 
examination the generality of naturalists have decided that in 
its affinities it stands in nearer alliance to fishes, and especially 
that in a descending scale it bears a close alliance to the 
family of Lampreys, yet there are so many peculiarities in its 
formation and prominent appearance, that w'e can place it only 
on that intermediate ground which leads from one of these 
great families to the other; while in some respects it seems 
to stand alone, as well in its structure as habits, as if to shew, 
as we have elsewhere observed, that a single presiding influence 
has been the creator of all, and while establishing the specific 
nature of each, has still united the apparently discordant 
characters of the separate individuals into one harmonious whole. 
In its more usual range the Borer or Myxine inhabits the 
northern seas of Europe, but it is scarcely rare in some 
