206 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



7, very small, and present only in tie angles, while in the fourth there are about the same 

 number, very inconspicuous. 



Tlie dorsal liu originates above the middle of the operculum, and at a distance from the 

 snout e(iual to twice the length of the snout. 



Tlie amil fin is composed of about 100 spines and rays. Owing to the mutilation of the 

 specimen it is impossible to determine how many there arc of each, but there are supi)osed 

 to be about 28 rays, normally united by a membrane into a fin. 



The caudal is also imperfect, but the middle rays are seen to be about half as long as 

 the remnants of the external rays. The fin is supposed to resemble in shape that oi' Lejn- 

 dopus caudatus. 



The pectoral originates under tlie tip of the opercular flap. Its outline is rounded 

 above instead of emarginate, as in Lepidopus caudatus. Its longest ray equals in length 

 the postorbital part of the head. 



The ventrals originate at a- distance from the snout equal to that of the base of the 

 pectorals from the same point. They are rudimentary and represented by minute scutes, 

 the length of wliich is 3J miUimeters in the specimen before us, and about equal to half the 

 iuterorbital width. 



Eadial fonnula: D. 154: A. 100; P. 12; V. I. 



CiPcal appendages 8, in the si^ecimen examined. Some, however, may have been lost, 

 the abdominal viscera having been partly digested by the halibut in the stomach of which 

 it was found. 



Color, uniform silvery, with traces of dark color upon head and tail. 



The type of this descrii^tion, a remarkable fish, taken from the stomach of a halibut 

 caught on the western edge of the Grand Bank of Newfoundland in 80 fathoms, was received 

 in 1887 from Ca])t. Roderick Morrison, of the Gloucester fishing schooner Laura Kelson. 



Extreme length of type (No. 29116), 890 millimeters (35^ inches.) 



A specimen was taken by the Albatross at station 2362, at a depth of 25 fathoms, and 

 another by the Blale at station vii, ott' St. Kitts. in 208 fathoms. 



B. elongatus was first obtained by Mr. Clarke, who thus describes its canture: 



trr;^/:^?yr/rrr:^rrrrrrrrm^^ 



BENTHODESSirS ELONGATCS. 



Collected by self, Hokitika beach, October 12, 1874, and the only perfect specimen of 

 so7ne eight or ten which have come under my observation. All were in the same proportion 

 as the one a])ove described, and varied but little in size, but were generally much mutilated 

 by attrition on the sand and shingly beach. 



Besides the type of the genus, Benthodesmiis elongatus, Clarke, known from New Zealand, 

 there is a Japanese species Benthodesmus tenuis, (Giinther),from Inosoma, Jajjan,' taken by 

 the Challenger in 345 fathoms, at station 232. 



APHANOPUS, Lowe. 



Aphanopm, Lowe, Troo. Zool. Soc, Lontloii, 1839, 79. (Tyi)e, A. carho, from Madeira . — GiJNTHER, Cat. 

 Fish. Brit. Miis., ii, 1860, p. 342; Cliallenger Report, xxii, 1887, 36. 



Body very elongate, band lilii', scaleless; head long, pointed; cleft of the mouth very 

 wide, jaws armed with strong, lanceolate teeth arranged in single series and in common 



^Lepidopus tenuis, GOnther, Annals Magazine of Natural History, Loudon, xx, 1877, 437; Challenger 

 Eeport, XXII, 1887, 37, pi. vil, fig. B. (Type 24 iiu'lies long, from luosoma, Japan.) 



