196 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



On the inner side of the jaw there 



are three other rows of precisely 



similar teeth, apparently destined 



to successively replace those in use, 



but not functional until the existing 



row has been lost. When the second 



row of teeth has reached the summit 



of the alveolus, erection must be 



speedy, for the dentary is very thin, 



nowhere more than 2 -5 mm. in thickness. The teeth in reserve 



have their apices pointing directly downwards, and the bases of 



the first reserve row are applied a little above the centre of the 



teeth of the functional row (fig. 2). 



As this paper was passing through the press the Trustees re- 

 ceived the Report on the Deep Sea Fishes of the "Albatross"; 

 this splendid work contains a descriptive notice and figures of 

 Isistius.* Garman there enumerates all the examples known, 

 from which it would appear that ours ranks as the fourteenth. 

 The "Albatross " specimen was taken at Station 3413, where a 

 depth of 1,360 fathoms was registered. Some idea is however 

 expressed that the fish may have been netted during the ascent 

 of the trawl, at a less depth. 



It is of interest to notice that Garman's suggestion that the 

 number of teeth may within certain limits increase with age, 

 receives support from the characters of our specimen. Examples 

 previously taken were found to have twenty-six or fewer teeth in 

 the lower jaw, such were however, immature, being ten inches or 

 less in length. In the individual taken by the "Albatross," which 

 measures more than eighteen inches in length, there are thirty-one 

 such teeth, precisely the number possessed by the Lord Howe 

 Island specimen, as before stated. This, though not quite so large 

 is possibly adult, as indicated by the nature of the sexual organs. 

 The largest example recorded measures more than nineteen and a 

 half inches in length, while Garman remarks — " The species is 

 mature at a length of eighteen inches." 



CONGERMURiENA HABENATA, Richardson. 



An example obtained by Mr. T. R. Icely quite agrees with speci- 

 mens from the mainland, having the tail proportionately longer 

 than in Richardson's type from New Zealand. This difference 

 has been expressed by Ramsay and Ogilby in the name C. longi- 

 caudata. 



* Garman — Mem. Mus. Oomp. Zool., xxiv., 1899, p. 34, pis. i., ii., iii., 

 Ixix. 



