FISHES.— MCCULLOCH. 83 



and three impressed grooves, the median of which is the deepest. 

 The lateral teeth are very slightly oblique. Either one or two 

 rows may be functional, and about five more are i-eversed inside 

 the mouth. The upper teeth are much smaller, narrow and 

 pointed, and not serrated. They are arranged in about seven 

 oblique rows of which three are functional. 



Skin everywhere covered with small, rough scales which are 

 diamond-shaped, the hinder half being larger than the anterior 

 portion. The posterior angle is raised from the skin as a stout 

 spine from which a median ridge extends to the front of the 

 scale, and two lateral ones are parallel with its sides ; the 

 junctions of the ridges at the anterior and lateral angles of the 

 scale are marked by small triangular areas. A lateral line can 

 be traced from the inner angle of each spiracle along the upper 

 half of the body to the middle of the caudal peduncle, whence it 

 extends along the tail and descends to the lower side of the 

 vertebral column near its tip. 



Profile of the back rising evenly from the snout to the first 

 dorsal, which originates about midway between the tip of the 

 snout and the posterior base of the second dorsal, or rather nearer 

 the latter ; the distance separating the two fins equals about five 

 times the length of the base of the first. The two dorsals are 

 subequal in size or the second may be a trifle the larger. The 

 tip of the first is rounded, and the posterior angle is either not 

 produced or only slightly so ; the second differs only in having 

 the posterior angle more or less produced. Pectorals a little 

 larger than the dorsals and their margins rounded without any 

 augles ; their tips do not reach backward to the origin of the first 

 dorsal, the interval between the verticles of the two points being 

 either a little greater or less than the length of the eye. Ventrals 

 originating far in advance of the second dorsal, their posterior 

 point of insertion below the anterior portion or the middle of that 

 fin ; their outer angles are rounded, and the posterior ones are 

 slightly produced, though more so in the males than in the female 

 specimens. Caudal fin large and broad, the inferior lobe not 

 pioduced backward; inferior margin oblique, forming a sharp 

 angle at its junction with the posterior lobe. 



Colour. — Brown with a very few small blackish spots, which are 

 round and irregularly scattered. Lips whitish in formalin. 



Described from a male example, 1140 mm. long. Eight others 

 are preserved, 500-1390 mm. long, of which two are females and 

 six are males. Beyond some slight variation in the relative sizes 

 and positions of the fins, all are quite similar. The scales of the 

 smaller specimens are less worn than those of the adults, and 

 the posterior portion is consequently rather longer and more 

 acute. 



