264 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Dixon, Means, Marchard, or Vancouver, except that Means mentions 

 them casually as sardines, and says the Indians are as fond of them and 

 make quite as much account of them as they do of salmon. They are 

 found in countless myriads in the waters of Alaska Territory, but hith- 

 erto no other use has been made of them in that Territory except as an 

 article of food for the Indians. 



If some of the canneries of Alaska would try the experiment and put 

 them up in oil similar to sardines, I predict that a lucrative trade would 

 result. No regular statistics of the Eulachon fishery have ever been kept 

 either in British Columbia or Alaska, and the foregoing meager account 

 of a, very important food-fish is all that I have been able to procure. 



BESCRBPTIOIV OF TU O IVEW SPECtES OF FISHES, ASCEliI€HTHYS 

 RIIOraORUS AND S1\TAT.IIVA CERDAIiE, FROITI JMEAU RAV, 

 WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



By I>AVaB> S. JOKOAI^ aisad CHAKI.ES II. €}II.B£RT. 



Ascelichthys, genus nova. 



Family of Coftklcc. Body rather robust, covered with naked skin. 

 Head comparatively broad and depressed, covered with naked skin. 

 Preopercle with a simple, strongly hooked spine. Villiform teeth on 

 jaws, vomer, and palatines. No slit behind fourth gill. Gill membranes 

 broadly united, free from the isthmus. No I'entral fins. Spinous dorsal 

 of low flexible spines. Other fins normally developed. This genus has 

 the general appearance of Olipocottus, but is distinguished at once from all 

 the known genera of the family b\^ the- absence of the ventral fins; 

 hence the generic name from aff/.sXrj-, without leg, and Ix^or;^ fish. 



Ascelichthys rhodorus, sp. nov. 



Body rather plump, broad, and low anteriorly, nearly cylindrical 

 mesially, becoming compressed behind. Head comparatively broad and 

 low, ovate, regularly narrowed forward, and rounded anteriorly. Eyes 

 rather large, placed high, separated by a slight! j'^ concave interorbital 

 space, narrower than the eye. Mouth rather large, nearly horizontal, 

 the maxillary extending to opposite the posterior border of the eye. 

 Lower jaw slightly shorter than upper. Lips rather full, the upper jaw 

 protractile. Teeth small, in villiform band^ on jaws, vomer, and pala- 

 • tines. The palatine bands long and narrow. PseudobrancliaB large. 

 Gill-rakers almost obsolete. No slit behind the fourth gill. Brauchios- 

 tegals six. Gill- membranes broadly united, free from the isthmus. A 

 low, fringed dermal flap above the posterior part of each eye. No other 

 cirri anywhere, and no trace anywhere, on body or head, of dermal 

 prickles or scales. No nasal spines. Nostrils both with short tubes, 

 the anterior the longer. 



Suborbital stay very slender, barely reaching the preopercle. Preop- 

 ercle with a rather short simple spine, strongly hooked upwards and in- 



