114 POGONIAS CROMIS. 



but the middle pharyngeal bones are armed with remarkably large teeth, which 

 bear a close resemblance to rounded and projecting paving-stones ; while the ante- 

 rior and posterior pharyngeal have small and card-like teeth. From the chin and 

 lower jaw descend numerous barbels ; those at the chin are smallest, and clus- 

 tered together, but a single row of larger barbels runs along the inferior face of 

 the lower jaw. There are five large pores near the chin ; the three internal are 

 placed among the barbels, the two external are without. 



The pre-opercle is rounded at its angle, and slightly so at its posterior margin ; 

 it is covered with large scales in front, is smooth behind, and has neither spine 

 nor serrated margin. The opercle is large, and terminates posteriorly in two 

 rounded and flattened processes covered with skin, which projects backward in a 

 loose fold. The gill-openings are large ; there are seven branchial rays. 



The dorsal fin is deeply emarginate, and but slightly elevated ; it begins a little 

 behind the origin of the pectoral, and has in its anterior portion ten large, com- 

 pressed, ensiform spines, of which the anterior is short, scarcely projecting above 

 the skin; the second and third are longest, and the two last are nearly horizontal; 

 these spines are partially received in a groove of scales ; the posterior portion of 

 the dorsal is longer, but less elevated, and has one spine and twenty-two soft rays. 

 The pectoral begins at the opercle, and is large, broad, semi-falciform, thick at its 

 root, pointed behind, and has seventeen rays. 



The ventral fin is shorter than the pectoral, and begins rather behind its origin; 

 it is thick at its root, and has one strong spinous, and five soft rays. The anal is 

 large, and has two spines, partially received in a groove, the anterior very short, 

 and the posterior large and long ; it has seven soft rays, the first long, and the last 

 short, so as to make the extremity of the fin vertical. The caudal is large, strong, 

 nearly square, and has seventeen rays. 



The scales are large, sub-quadrate, rounded behind, where the margin is soft 

 and ciliated, very thick in the middle, whence radiating stria; run to the rad- 



