148 GARFISH. 



used as bait. Perhaps the strong and disagreeable smell that 

 proceeds from it when newly caught, may be the reason of its 

 being little regarded for the table. 



This fish attains the length of about thirty inches, but the 



example described measured only twenty inches, and the greatest 



depth, which was at the ventral fins, an inch and a half. The 



jaws protrude beyond the eyes three inches and a half,- upper 



jaw more slender than the lower, and not quite so long. The 



two branches forming the lower jaw are united by bone, which 



is crossed with rough bony bars; and the upper jaw is equally 



united into one, but without bars. Two rows of teeth in the 



upper jaw, of which the inner row is much the most prominent; 



in the lower jaw a single row. In the mouth a fleshy pad in 



front of the tongue, which with the remarkable structure of 



the nostril, in a pit, with a free fleshy process and large 



nerves passing thither, shew it to be of quick sensation after 



prey. Eye large; upper part of the head hard and bony. 



Body moderately compressed, with scales, and a ridge of them 



of peculiar form passing along each side of the belly through 



the whole length; acting as a point of support for muscular 



eflfort. The body becomes more slender opposite the dorsal and 



anal fins, which are far behind and opposite each other; more 



expanded at their origin, and ending short of the tail, which 



is forked. Pectoral fin short, upper rays longest; ventrals 



distant before the vent and front of the anal fin. The colour 



brilliant blue on the back, slight tints of blue on the fins, all 



besides brilliant white. 



The articulation of the jaws is characteristic. The upper jaw 

 is joined to the frontal bone by a strong ligament, which admits 

 of free motion. A process of this upper jaw also passes down 

 to the angle of the mouth; being covered by a mystache formed 

 of a bone corresponding to what anatomists term the os unguis. 

 The interior part of this process is joined by a ligament to the 

 raised edge of the lower jaw; this ligament also admits of free 

 motion. But the proper articulation of the under jaw is below 

 the eye, to what from that circumstance perhaps may be called 

 the temporal bone, but which is the first or lowest gill-cover. 

 The eflect of this structure is, that the depressing action of the 

 lower jaw is the cause of the lifting of the upper jaw; and 

 that, too, to a greater extent than the lower, by a kind of 



