152 HOLIBUT. 



The general shape and proportions of this fish will be 

 understood by the comparative measurements given above. 

 The capacity of the mouth is large, and the jaws are armed 

 with, strong and jDr eminent teeth, those in the lower jaw stout, 

 scarcely close together, and incurved; in the upper jaw with 

 an approach to a double row of irregular size. The right eye 

 a little in advance of the left; nostrils on the ridge of 

 the head. The body smooth, but when dry the scales appear 

 oblong and overlapping each other. Lateral line curved over 

 the pectoral fin, afterwards straight. The dorsal fin begins 

 over the eye, at first narrow, expanding at about two thirds 

 of its length, afterwards narrower, ending short of the tail: 

 anal fin beginning at a considerable distance from the ventrals; 

 expanding at an early jjortion of its progress, narrower towards 

 its termination; rays of the former one hundi-ed and two, of 

 the anal seventy-four, but prone to vary in number. In the 

 pectoral I have found fourteen rays in the coloured side and 

 fifteen below, but this is jjrobably liable to variation. Caudal 

 slightly incurved, the border waved, sixteen rays; ventrals 

 small, distant from the throat and also from the anal fin. 

 Colour of the upper surface livid, with perhaps a tendency 

 to olive, below white. 



