60 



BERYCID.E. 



like the spokes of a wheel from the eye on the suborbitaries^ crossing at right 

 angles the double limb or border of the preopercle, and forming on the top of the 

 head three elongated, lozenge-shaped compartments, placed in a triangle ; two in 

 front and temporal, and each divided across in the middle by a spmious or mem- 

 branous dissepiment ; the third behind, and on the middle of the skull between 

 the eyes. Also upon the lower jaw there are two elongated cells, placed one 

 before the other, on each side ; the first is small and short, the hinder long. 

 These cells are hollow, and covered by a perfectly pellucid, glassy mem- 

 brane, like goldbeater's-skin, stretched tight and flat, as in a drum, over each, 

 on a level with their bony walls ; through this transparent skin is seen their 

 bottom, coated, especially in the suborbitaries and the border of the preopercle, 

 with a bright, silvery, and iridescent lining, contrasting beautifully, whilst the 

 fish IS fresh, with the reddish bony ridges or prominent divisions of the cells ; 

 which are all of the same level, and round the eye are irregularly or unequally 

 dilated or expanded at their top, as if winged ; appearing exactly as if they had 

 been artificially ground down to an uniform height or level with the skin. They 

 are also very rough or granulate. The whole head has a decomposed or carious 

 appearance, even when quite fresh. 



The crests or ridges on the top of the head are thus distributed. High up at the 

 top of the nape originate two, which first a little diverge, and then again converge, 

 forming the central lozenge above mentioned. From their point of meeting, which 

 is on a line with the anterior edge of the orbit, they advance a little way conjoin- 

 ed, and, then separating, terminate each in a distinct prominent point or tooth in 

 the middle of the muzzle ; from which a branch turns backwards on each side to 

 meet another bony point or tooth at the upper anterior canthus of the orbit, placed 

 just at the upper corner, and behind the hinder nostril. From this point again, pro- 

 ceeding backwards, spring two branches ; one forming the upper part of the orbit, 

 the other rising higher, and completing the temporal lozenges above mentioned, by 

 nearly meeting the ridge of the central lozenge at its widest part. From this 

 point this upper branch forks into two branches, which, first diverging, again unite, 

 so as to inclose an elliptic cell, and terminate in a rough, subulate, flattened spine, 

 a little above the considerably longer sujjerscapidari/ spine. The upper of these 

 two spines, by MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes considered as belonging to the 

 mastoid, forms the central crest of the large, elliptic, pellucid, superscapulary cell 

 upon the shoulder, just above the origin of the lateral line. The superscapulary 

 spine lies along the lower edge of this cell, exactly over the commencement of the 

 lateral line. It is similarly rough and serrulate, but more conspicuous and strong ; 

 though again weaker than the basal preopercular spine. 



The Immeral is a distinct, triangular, rough plate in the upper axil of the pecto- 

 ral fins; its hinder angle is very blunt and rounded. 



The pectoral fins are large, and placed at about one fourth of its height up the 

 side. Instead of being lanceolate and acuminate, as in Beryx, they are spa- 

 thulate or wedge-shaped, and peculiarly blunt and rounded, or even truncate 

 at the tips. Their length is contained four and a half times in that of the whole 

 fish ; and they reach backwards a little beyond the origin of the anal fin. Their 

 first ray is short and simple ; weak, and not pungent, yet spinose : the second 

 longer and articulate, or barred, but simple. The next ten or eleven are of nearly 

 equal length, and branched and barred as usual ; the second and third last only 

 being abruptly shorter. 



The ventral fins are just beneath, and shorter than the pectoral, being about one 

 sixth of the whole length, obovate, and rounded at the tip. Their spine or first 

 ray is remarkably strong, broad, thick, nearly as long as the soft rays, and stri- 

 ated or strongly grooved in a longitudinal direction. The six branched rays are 



