remarkable of the flounders. Of all the group, it approaches in form 
and general characters most nearly to the Gadoid fishes, from which we 
may presume the flounders to be descended, although Dr. Gill has sug- 
gested the possibility of their descent from Trachypteroid fishes. 
t 
236 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [12] | 
ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF ATHERESTHES. 
a. Head about 33 in length; depth, 34; D. 103, A.86; Lat. 1.135. Gill-rakers about 
4-+-12, long and slender; interorbital ridge broad, scaly; eyes large; vertebrae, 
12 + 37=49. Color olive brown, the margins of the scales darker; blind side 
dusted with dark points; inside of mouth and gill-cavity black. 
‘STOMIAS, 1. 
1. ATHERESTHES STOMIAS. 
(THE ARROW-TOOTHED HALIBUT.) 
[Plate I.] 
Platysomatichthys stomias Jordan and Gilbert, Proc. U. 8S. Nat. Mus., 1880, 51, 301, 
(San Francisco). 
Atheresthes stomias Jordan and Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1880, 57, 454 (off San 
Francisco). Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1881, 242 (San Francisco, Port 
Etches, Afognak Island, Popoff Island, Shumagins). Jordan and Gilbert, 
Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 1881, 66 (Point Reyes to Farallones). Jordan and Gil- 
bert, Syn. Fish..N. A., 820, 1882. Bean, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, 354 
(Wrangel and Nabu Bay, Alaska). Jordan, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 1884, 
188, plate 53 (Point Reyes). 
Habitat—Coast of Alaska, southward in deep water to near San 
Francisco. 
This species is not uncommon in the deep water off San Francisco, 
and is brought in in considerable numbers from the sweep-nets (parran.- 
zelle) used Mm this region. Farther northward it is taken on the coast 
of Alaska, and it is properly a member of the Alaskan fauna. 
Genus I].—PLATYSOMATICHTHYS. 
Reinhardtius Gill, Cat. Fishes East. Coast N. A., 1861, 50. (Nomen nudum.) 
Platysomatichthys Bleeker, Comptes Rendus, Acad. Sci. Amsterdam, xiii, 1862, 
426. (pinguis = hippoglossoides. ) 
Reinhardtius Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864, 218. (hippoglossoides. ) 
Type: Plewronectes pinguis Fabricius = Pleuronectes hippoglossoides 
Walbaum. 
But a single species of this genus is known, an Arctic fish, in some 
degree intermediate between the true halibut and Atheresthes. 
We continue to use the name Platysomatichthys for this genus, as the 
earlier name Reinhardtius was introduced without explanation or spe- 
cial designation of a type, although there is no question as to what 
species the author would have included in the group if he had taken 
the trouble to define it. 
