DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 165 



Besses in addition to this only a single specimen of Notaeanthus — Wotac. sexspinis), but it is 

 in a very unsatisfactory condition. It was, perhaps, injured in transportation from Paris. 

 The jar lias not been opened for more than thirty years. Very likely Blocb received ii in a 

 poor state of preservation — a large cavity in the belly, between the pectorals and ventrals, a 

 dilapidated left cheek, injured eyeballs, intestines wanting, etc. In addition to this, there 



are other defects of a later date, such as the loss of the caudal, the tip of the snout, the 

 macerati f the frontal bones. The gill arch is almost entirely gone: the intestines alto- 

 gether. The frontal bone is crushed and the first vertebra is disconnected. There is a long 

 gap in the dorsal tin. 



The actual length is now 82 centimeters; in addition to tins should be added, at the 

 most, 1 centimeter for the snout and § centimeter for the caudal tin. This makes its former 

 length about 85 centimeters. (Bloch says 2A feet ; this would lie, according to the Rhenish 

 \i. i. Prussian] measure, only 78J centimeters. Perhaps Bloch used alonger foot, or hegave 

 only an approximate measurement.) As we have no other specimen which we might have 

 .•on founded with that of Bloch, and ours still bears the label (apparently in Troschel's hand- 

 writing) "ITotacanthus nasus, Iceland, Bloch," 1 have no doubt that No. 140!) is the type 

 specimen. Nor can there have been another in Paris. 



How much of the end of the caudal is missing is difficult to say. The point of the frac- 

 ture is hard and the fin bones are soft. 1 f Valenciennes's account is accurate, the caudal fin 

 only is missing, and one or two rays of this are still attached. If Bloch's description is cor- 

 rect, there were 14!) — (13+8 or 10 ?)=126-128 rays in the anal: consequently, a caudal end, 

 with at least 10 rays, in addition to the caudal tin, was lost, and the fish would have been 

 somewhat longer than 85 centimeters. 1 presume there was an oversight on Bloch's part. 



The material now classed by authors under the name of N. nasus is the following: 

 (1) A specimen described by Fabricius in 1798 under the generic name of Campylodon, 

 obtained in 1704 from Greenland: (2) Bloch's type in the Berlin Museum, believed by him 

 to come from the West Indies, described under the names N. Ghemnitzii (?), N. nasus, and 

 Acanthonotus nasus; (3) A specimen, obtained off Iceland by La Recherche and brought by 

 Gaimard to the Paris Museum, figured in the Eegne Animal, and said to have been figured 

 also in the Voyage in Scandinavia. This, as has already been stated, is possibly a typical 

 V. nasus; (4) A specimen, ■'! feet long, obtained in South Greenland, and brought in 1S77 to the 

 Copenhagen Museum. This also is possibly not a characteristic representative of the species. 



Both Canestrini and Giglioli enumerate Notacanihus nasus among Mediterranean fishes, 

 but entirely without authority. 



NOTACANTHUS ANALIS, Gill. (Figures 184 ; 191 A-B.) 

 Notaeanthus analis. Gill, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mns., \'i, 1883, 255. — Gunther; Challenger Report, XXII, 248, 

 note. — Vaillant, Exp. Sei. Travailleur et Talisman, 318, etseg. — Jokdas ami Gilbert, Cat. Fish. N. 

 Anier.. 1885, 58. 



A N~otacanthus, with its body much higher over ventrals than over pectorals, and com- 

 paratively short, its height equal to one-third of the distance from the vent to the tip of 

 the snout, and nearly equal to the length of the head, the lateral line arcuate in front of 

 the dorsal spines, following profile of the back and then sinking to the median line of the 

 body. First dorsal spine in front of vertical from insertion of ventral. 



The snout is compressed, pointed, much produced beyond the moderate mouth. The cleft 

 extends nearly to the vertical through the middle of eye. The length of the snout is li 

 times the diameter of the eye. The width of the interorbital area is slightly less than the 

 diameter of the eye. The projection of the snout beyond the mouth is equal to the diameter 

 of the eye or nearly so. The snout is compressed, not swollen. Mouth narrow, transverse, 

 its width about one fourth the length of the head. The eye is placed some distance below 

 the upper profile and in the line of the lateral line continued to the nostrils. Gill opening 

 wide; the membranes confluent and slightly in advance of the vertical from the upper end 

 of the gill opening; not attached to the isthmus. Scales very minute, imbricated, adherent. 



All the dorsal spines are short, the anterior very short; the second and first nearly over 

 the origin of the ventrals, the fifth above the vent and the sixth slightly behind the ori 

 gin of the anal. The longest aboutone half as long as the eye. The last (eleventh), which is 

 followed by a single ray attached to it by membrane, is over the fifteenth spine of the anal. 

 The dorsal spines are distant from each other, and behind each is a narrow angular mem- 

 brane. The anal begins immediately behind the vent, and in its middle portion is consid- 



