NOTE ON A LARGE SAW-FISH. 
139 
in circumference. They lay ventral in the abdominal cavity, and 
were connected together ventrally by a thin delicate serous 
membrane, which was united to the body wall dorsally. Their 
external walls were highly vascular, whilst the internal walls 
presented the appearance usual amongst viviparous Selachians. 
The oviducts were united at the cloaca to form a wide infundibular 
opening. The left oviduct contained 12 embryos, the right one 11. 
Of the 23 embryos, 9 were males and 14 females. Having no infor¬ 
mation to hand as to the period of gestation, I give the following 
particulars. 
The embryos all lay horizontally, i.e., parallel to the axis of the 
parent. There still remained a small quantity of a serous fluid in 
the oviduct, the bulk of which had probably been lost prior to 
examination, as previously noted. Some embryos lay with the 
rostrum close to the cloacal opening, whilst others were exactly 
opposite. The embryos themselves measured in extreme length 
14 inches ; breadth across pectoral fins 44 inches ; length of rostrum 
5 inches; length of placental stalk 5 inches ; diameter of yolk-sac 
2f inches ; the stalk of the yolk-sac was whitish gray, increasing 
slightly in diameter as it approached the sac, the greatest diameter 
being f inch, the average | inch. The sac itself was exactly similar 
in colour to the yolk of a hen’s egg. 
The blood vessels all ran parallel to the direction of the stalk. 
The presence of the substance of the yolk-sac was noted right up to 
the origin. 
With reference to the rostrum, the dentition, whilst apparent, 
was obscured by being entirely covered by a transparent carti¬ 
laginous tissue, which of necessity must disappear later. Even in 
the foetus the teeth are irregular in number, and vary between an 
alternate arrangement and a distribution in pairs. The number 
present in the 23 embryos varied from 23 to 28 on both sides, and 
the distribution in pairs from 5 to 26. 
All apertures were open to the exterior. A line of mucoid pits 
were well defined on each external side of the gills, running to the 
eye and terminating at the origin of the pectoral fin. 
The eyes were protruding. Two well-defined but minute pits, 
approximated, occurred dorsally, opposite to the posterior limit of 
the orbit, otherwise the embryos presented no outstanding features. 
