EPHIPPUS GIGAS. 107 



soft rays, of which the anterior is prolonged, and ends in a filament, and the 

 posterior is attached to the body by a fold of skin. The anal fin arises opposite 

 the origin of the soft dorsal, and has three spines, placed in a groove, the first 

 very short, the second and third more than twice as long, and eighteen soft rays, 

 covered with scales, arranged and shaped like those of the dorsal. The caudal is 

 large, strong, thick, crescentic, and has sixteen rays covered with scales. 



The scales are small, sub-round, and finely ciliated behind ; the lateral line is 

 concurrent with the back, and consequently much arched ; the supra-scapular is 

 large and smooth. 



Colour. The head above is dusky ; the cheeks and jaws are dull silver, or lead 

 colour; the back, along the margin of the dorsal fin, is dark, and tinged with green ; 

 the sides and belly are clouded silver, or lead colour ; the soft dorsal and the anal 

 fins are dark at their roots, but less so near their borders ; the pectoral fin is 

 transparent, slightly clouded at its base ; the ventral is light and transparent ; 

 the caudal is dark at its base, but less so at its tip. 



Dimensions. The head is a little less than one fourth of the entire length, with 

 the tail included ; the greatest elevation without the dorsal fin is equal to two and 

 a half heads ; total length, eighteen inches. 



Splanchnology. The liver is large ; the left lobe is very stout and long, extending to the posterior 

 extremity of the stomach, and is joined without a fissure to the transverse portion, which is also large 

 and thick, and from its centre projects backwards a middle lobe ; the right lobe is thick, but shorter 

 than the middle. The gall-bladder is large, sub-oval, and projects behind the right lobe, to which it 

 is attached. The stomach is of great size, nearly as long as the abdominal cavity, and has exceed- 

 ingly thick walls ; its posterior extremity is reflected forwards, to form the pyloric portion, which is 

 more slender, and has thinner walls, though it is nearly as long as the stomach itself, and terminates 

 in the duodenum, with a pyloric contraction very evident externally. There are six delicate coecal 

 appendages, nearly as long as the stomach. The small intestine is very long, more than five feet 

 in the adult, and with numerous convolutions, connected together by a loose mesentery. The testi- 

 cles are large, oblong, and unite in substance far back. The air-bladder is large, bifurcated in front, 



