C 49 3 
V. On a newly discovered genus of Serpentiform Fishes. By 
1. Harwood, M. D. F. L. S. Professor of JV'atural History 
in the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Communicated by 
Daniel Moore, Esq. F. R. S. 
Read February i, 1827. 
IN no department of natural history have descriptions been 
more unsatisfactory than such as relate to certain productions 
of the ocean, which, either from the immeasurable depths 
that conceal them, or the absence of those circumstances best 
adapted to their multiplication, very rarely present themselves 
to our notice, and from this rarity often excite impressions 
on our minds, ascribing to them properties foreign to their 
real natures, and at variance with that harmony which, even 
in the deepest recesses of the ocean, pervades the works of 
Omnipotence. 
It is doubtless from a want of more frequent opportunities 
for investigation, that the ancients were induced to consider 
the sea as the abode of monsters and prodigies of the most 
incongruous characters; for, in addition to their prevailing 
opinion expressed in Pliny, “ ut quidquid nascatur in parte 
naturae ulla, et in mare esse; praeterque multa quae nusquam 
alibi," we know that tritons, sirens, mermaids, and more 
lately krakens, and serpents of vast proportions, and varied 
properties, have been the frequent subjects of serious consi¬ 
deration ; and even in the present day there are perhaps few 
whose imaginations, at some period of their lives, have not 
MDCCCXXVII. H 
