68 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. ii. 



and consists of two short fleshy tubercles, which lie in a depres- 

 sion in front of the second dorsal lin. The second dorsal has 

 three rays ; the anal is opposite the second dorsal, and has four 

 rays ; the caudal has eight rays, the four central rays being much 

 larger than the others, and bifid. The pectorals are small, and 

 have ten very delicate rays. The gill-opening is a slit situated 

 below the pectoral fin. The upper jaw is formed by the inter- 

 maxillaries, and is armed, together with the lower jaw, with a 

 series of teeth of moderate size, which can be depressed inward 

 as in Lophius. The skin is thickly covered with minute im- 

 bedded conical spines. The eyes are very small, and are placed 

 high up on the middle of the head. The presence of a fish of 

 this group at so great a depth is of special interest. From its 

 structure, and from the analogy of its nearest allies, there seems 

 to be no reasonable doubt that it lives on the bottom. It is the 

 habit of many of the family to lie hidden in the mud, with the 

 long dorsal filament and its terminal soft expansion exposed. 

 It has been imagined that the expansion is used as a bait to al- 

 lure its prey, but it seems more likely that it is a sense-organ, 

 intended to give notice of their approach. 



On the two following days we went on our course toward 

 San Vicente, sounding and taking serial temperatures daily. 

 The weatlier was very fine, with a light north-easterly breeze. 

 The water, which had previously been of a deejD-blue color, 

 changed on the 23d to a dull green ; on the 25th it resumed its 

 beautiful shade of cobalt. On the 26th we trawled in 1975 

 fathoms with small results, and on the 27th we anchored off 

 Porto Grande. 



We remained a week at San Vicente. The island is most 

 uninteresting ; bare ridges of reddish volcanic lavas and tuffs — 

 some of them certainly with a rugged and picturesque outline ; 

 and wnde valleys and valley plains — wildernesses of fragments 

 of the rock which look and almost feel as if they were at a low 

 red-heat. It was now about the hottest season, and everything 



