188 LUMPFISH. 



flesh the lines of the vertebrae were seen carried upward along 

 the border of the tail for two thirds of its length, thus in 

 some degree imitating the permanent organization of that part 

 in Sharks and Sturgeons, as also in several races of fishes in 

 extinct and fossilized families, as well as, in a less degree, the 

 Common Salmon. The rays of the caudal fin are seen to 

 proceed downward from this line of vertebrae through the 

 membrane of the tail. The sucking organ under the throat 

 was simple. Colour a yellowish brown, with a bright silver 

 line from near the front, at the lips, through the eyes, and 

 backward opposite the first dorsal fin. A line of the same 

 kind ran across to join the former from before each eye. A 

 little before the caudal fin on the middle line of the body, 

 above and below, was a pale spot, appearing like a mucous 

 orifice; but there was no appearance of a tubercle, and the 

 skin seemed to be furnished with punctations. Professor 

 Nilsson has observed a process of development similar to this, 

 and which he has described in his "Scandinavisk Fauna." 



When grown to near an inch or perhaps more in length, I 

 have found it still without a ridge on the back, or a tubercle 

 on the skin; and the tail was even lancet-shaped, but the 

 head had become more massy; and in assuming the finally 

 characteristic form the alteration appears to proceed from before 

 backward. It is at this time also, or often when the length 

 does not exceed half an inch, that the tubercles begin to 

 appear, which is first on the anterior portion of the body, 

 along the line above the pectoral fin, and below it from the 

 sucking organ, but particularly also along the ridge of the 

 back to the first dorsal fin. This then becomes raised and 

 thrust backward, until the fin itself has become swallowed up 

 in the fat integument, and the whole fish assumes the form as 

 we shall now proceed to describe it. 



A full-grown Lumpfish has measured twenty-one inches in 

 length, and eleven inches and a half in depth; the head 

 broad, ascending from the mouth in a slightly curved outline 

 to what has been the first dorsal fin, and which continues to 

 be such in the male, which is considerably less than the 

 female. The body is thick and solid, becoming thin and 

 ridged at the back, along which runs a row of elevated rough 

 tubercles, as far as opposite the vent, and close behind this 



