147 



Cleft of mouth oblique, enormous ; the limbs of the mandible widely dis- 

 tensible. Teeth fixed ; upwards of twenty-five small, unequal, and curved in 

 each premaxilla, and about the same number, in the form of minute, close-set, 

 even serrations, in each maxilla ; a fang on each side of the vomer ; one or two 

 moderate-sized teeth in the palatines. The teeth of the lower jaw are very 

 large, curved and acute, and stand out laterally, eight or nine on each side, 

 almost at right angles to the jaw. 



Barbel about as long as the head and ending in three longish filaments. 



The bony part of the opercle is reduced to a small preoperculum. 



The surface of the body is covered with a tenacious slime. There are no 

 scales, but the body is mapped with regular rows of hexagonal depressions, each 

 with a minute central white point. 



A salient white line, composed of a multitude of (luminous ?) specks, runs 

 along the mid- ventral line, from the throat to the anal fin. Two rows of lumin- 

 ous organs on each side of the abdomen, the lower one extending from the 

 isthmus to the base of the caudal, the upper extending from the base of the 

 pectoral to the origin of the anal. 



Those of the lower row are disposed as follows : — 6 from the isthmus to the 

 base of the pectoral, 34 from the pectoral to the base of the ventral, 9 from the 

 ventral to the anal, 15 above the course of the anal, — in all 64. 



Those of the upper row are 85 or 36 in number. 



The dorsal fin begins in the last fifth of the body, a little in rear of the 

 commencement of the anal, which is also the deeper. Caudal not forked. The 

 pectorals arise on very narrow bases near the ventral profile ; their length is 

 equal to the height of the body. The ventrals are also narrow and are exceed- 

 ingly prolonged, reaching beyond the origin of the anal. 



Colours in spirit : — Uniform black ; fins and barbel white, with black tips. 

 Two specimens, rather mutilated, the longer 3- inches. 

 Gulf of Manaar, 597 fathoms. 

 Regd. Nos. 11734, 11735. 



120. Stomias elongatiis, Alcock. 



Stomias elongatus, Alcock, Ann. Mug. Nat. Hist., August, 1891, p. 129. 



D. 19. A. 21. P. 6. V. 6. 



Length of the head one-tenth, height of the body one-fifteenth of the total 

 without the caudal. Eye longer than the snout, not quite a fourth the length of 

 the head. 



