TEMNODON SALTATOR. 63 



direction, and slightly longer than the upper; both are armed with a single roAv of 

 straight, sharp-pointed, compressed, or lancet-shaped teeth, about twenty-four in 

 the upper, and twenty in the lower jaw, which are slightly longer, and received 

 within those of the upper; the upper jaw has, besides, an internal and less exten- 

 sive row of smaller teeth. The vomer is furnished at its anterior part with a 

 small, sub-triangular patch of minute pointed, villiform teeth ; each palate-bone 

 has a narrow, oblong group, directed outward and backward, of similar teeth. 

 The tongue is small, narrow, rounded in front, tolerably free, and is smooth, except 

 near its base, where there are two small groups of very minute teeth. The pha- 

 ryngeal bones are all armed with numerous small, villiform teeth. 



The pre-opercle is very thin, rounded at its angle, with its ascending border 

 slightly emargiuate, and directed upwards and backwards. The opercle terminates 

 behind, in two flat and pointed processes, covered with skin, which projects beyond 

 them, and gives a rounded form to its angle. The sub-opercle and the inter- 

 opercle are both large, and appear sub-ciliated at their free margin ; the cheeks, 

 the opercle, and the pre-opercle are covered with scales, but the jaws and snout 

 are smooth. The gill-openings are wide ; there are seven branchial rays. 



The anterior dorsal fin arises opposite the middle of the pectoral, and has eight 

 delicate spines ; the fourth is longest, the eighth very minute, and all are con- 

 nected by a membrane, delicate, thin, and transparent, and are completely received 

 in a groove when the fin is closed ; the posterior dorsal is much elevated, and has 

 twenty-seven rays ; the first and second are longest, and all are united by a thin, 

 transparent membrane, on which minute scales ascend for some distance. The 

 pectoral is short, thick at its root, though it terminates rather pointedly behind ; 

 it has sixteen rays, with a triangular fold of scaly skin in the axilla above. The 

 ventral is very short, and has one spine and five soft rays ; it begins nearly at the 

 posterior border of the root of the pectoral, is very close to its felloAv, and is bound 

 by a fold of skin, for half its length, to the belly. The anal is shaped like the soft 

 dorsal fin, and terminates behind it ; it has twenty-eight soft rays, and is preceded 

 by two minute spines, which are at times covered with skin. The caudal is thick 



