102 ECHENEIS LINEATA. 



broad, and has an extensive group of minute teeth in front ; from this group run 

 back two bands of similar teeth for some distance on the sides of the vomer, 

 leaving the central portion naked. The tongue is covered with minute teeth ; the 

 pharyngeal bones are armed like the jaws. 



The pre-opercle is narrow, rounded below and at the angle, which is entire. 

 The opercle is sub-triangular, rounded behind and below; thick, straight, and 

 with a foramen in front ; thin, and terminating in an obtuse point behind. The 

 sub-opercle is ensiform, thin, rounded below, and ending in a point beyond the 

 opercle behind. The inter-opercle is long and narrow, with its base behind. 

 There are nine branchial rays ; the posterior four are attached to the outer side of 

 the OS hyodes, and the anterior are joined to its inner margin. 



The body of this fish is very similar in form to that of Elacate Canada ; elon- 

 gated, broad in front, sub-round in the middle, and gradually tapering and slightly 

 compressed at the tail. The soft dorsal fin is very long, not much elevated, and 

 with nearly a straight margin ; it begins rather nearer to the tip of the lower jaw 

 than to the extremity of the caudal fin, and has thirty-seven soft rays, of which the 

 third, fourth, and fifth are longest, and from this they decrease gradually in leMgth 

 to the last, which is slightly prolonged. The pectoral is large, broad, pointed be- 

 hind, and begins at the opercle, with its superior margin near the dorsal outline ; 

 it has nineteen rays. The ventral begins near the root of the pectoral, and ends, 

 with it behind ; it is narrow, placed in a depression, and has one spinous and five 

 soft rays. The anal is similar in shape to the dorsal ; it begins with it in front, 

 and is coterminal with it behind ; it has thirty-two rays. The caudal is large, 

 entire, or but slightly semi-lunate, and has sixteen rays. 



The scales are lanceolate in form, and so very small as to give a granular ap- 

 pearance to the skin when dry. The lateral line begins near the disk above the 

 pectoral fin, but it soon descends to the median plane, and thus continues to the 

 end ; its scale has no tube. 



Colour. When just taken from the water, the body above is dark, the belly 



