3. GALEOIDES. 333 



are much less elongate than in Pentanemus : the maxillary is styli- 

 form, and widens very shghtly at its posterior extremity ; the inter- 

 maxillary is very feeble, with a slight posterior prominence and 

 with stout processes, and, hke the mandibTila, it is fm-nished wdth a 

 narrow villiform band of teeth ; the mandibula has a cleft between 

 the articulary and dentary bones. The vomer is perfectly toothless ; 

 its head has anteriorly two ridges, meeting at a rather obtuse angle, 

 behind which is a shallow groove. The length of the palatine bone 

 h, about one-thu-d of the pteiygoid ; its oiiter margin is armed with 

 a narrow band of villiform teeth. The bottom of the orbit is nearly 

 entirely bony. The prseoperculum is rather narrow, nearly straight 

 in a vertical direction, without a distinct inferior limb ; its inner ridge 

 is very low, not prominent, the muciferous channel rudimentary, and 

 the free margin striated, the striae tei-minating in a fine serratnre. 

 The opercidum is triangular, with a slight ridge on its inner surface; 

 the suboperculiun is at least t'naee as large as the interoperculum, 

 and veiy finely striated. The basal portion of the brain-capsule is 

 neither swollen nor compressed, and the basisphenoid shows only 

 some pores. The glossohyal is small, styUform ; the ceratohyal 

 moderately elongate. The pectoral appendages are joined to the 

 lower extremity of the radius, which is not particularly wide ; the 

 openings between the radius and humerus are rather small. The 

 two pubic bones do not leave a free space between them, and each 

 is formed by thi'ee lamellse, the upper of which is very narrow. 



There are ten abdominal and fourteen caudal vertebra, the length 

 of the former portion of the vertebral column being to that of the 

 latter as 1 : 1'6. All the neural, ha3mal, intemeural and iuterhaemal 

 spines are feeble, except the first interneural of each of the dorsal 

 fins, which is transfoimed into a bony plate, and the fii'st interhaemal, 

 which has a slight anterior ridge. 



