REPORT ON THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. Ill 



interorbital space. All the teeth are very small and short, densely set, forming narrow 

 villiform bands ; vomerine band open, A-shaped. Gill-cavity deep black ; gill-rakers 

 long and slender, sixteen in number, with some rudimentary ones in front and behind. 



The dorsal fin commences above the upper end of the gill-opening, \\dth short rays 

 partly hidden in the skin ; the rays become longer on the anterior third of the tail, 

 but remain of moderate length, and the anal rays are still shorter. The pectoral 

 has a broad base, is quite free, and composed of rather feeble rays ; its length is equal 

 to that of the postorbital portion of the head. Ventral rays very feeble, reaching nearly 

 to the middle of the pectoral. 



The scales must have lieen extremely thin, and rather small ; there were probably 

 about twenty in a transverse series running from the vent to the dorsal fin. The lateral 

 line cannot be made out. 



Light-coloured (possibly pink in life), with the head and abdomen black. 



Habitat.- — Only one specimen of this eminently bathybial fish was obtained in Mid- 

 Atlantic (Station 104), at a depth of 2500 fathoms. Its total length is 10 inches. 



Bathyonus catena. 



Bathyonus catena, Goode and Bean, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol viii., 1886, p. 603. 



TaU much attenuated ; height of the body two-thirds of the length of the head. 

 Head not much compressed ; width of the interorbital space equal to the diameter of 

 the eye, about equal to the length of the snout, and one-fifth of that of the head. GiU- 

 rakers long, about fifteen in number. Origin of the dorsal fin slightly behind the root 

 of the pectoral ; pectoral four-fifths as long as the head. The distance of the vent from 

 the root of the ventral rather more than the length of the head. Brownish-yellow, head 

 and abdomen blackish. 



Habitat. — This species evidently belongs to the same genus as Bathyonus compressits 

 and Bathyonus tsenia ; it is known from two specimens, 8 and 9 inches long, obtained 

 by the U.S. Fish Commission in lat. 28° N., long. 87° 42' W.; at a depth of 1467 

 fiithoms. 



Pwogadus. 



Pongadus, Goode and Bean, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. viii., 1886, p. 602. 



Body compressed, with long, tapering tail, covered with very thin, small, deciduous 

 scales. Bones of the head soft, with the muciferous channels moderately developed. 

 Operculum with a spine above ; some of the other cranial Ijones project as spines. 

 Snout rather depressed, with the jaws equal in front. Mouth very wide ; bands of 

 ivlliform teeth in the jaws, on the vomer and palatine bones. Barbel none. Eyes 



