62 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
Melamphaés mizolepis. 
Scopelus mizolepis Gint., 1878, Ann. Mag, Nat. Hist., IL, 185. 
Melamphaés mizolepis Giint., 1887, “ Challenger” Deep Sea Fishes, 28. 
DAM, 105A. 1, 8: V1 GsaR. 1A rie 20Kea: : 
Compressed, high at the nape, greatest height about one fourth of the 
total length, greatest width about three fifths of the height, body cavity 
nearly half of the total length. Head large, two fifths of the length 
to the base of the caudal, half as wide as long, transversely convex, and 
nearly straight or with a slight longitudinal concavity on the top, much 
curved from the chin to the isthmus. Skull thin and fragile, with prom- 
inent ridges along the canals of the lateral system. These ridges give 
the skull a trough-like channel on the crown hardly as wide as the eye 
and extending forward to the interorbital space ; above each orbit a kidney- 
shaped cavity; suborbital, opercular, and submandibular grooves deeply 
traced. The median keel below the chin, formed by the thin inner edges 
of the mandibles, is very prominent. The maxillary is almost entirely 
hidden by the suborbital expansions, and the orbital edges are well devel- 
oped. Both preopercular ridges are prominent; operculum extended in 
a sharp point. Snout massive, nearly twice as long as the eye, blunt, the 
angle on the chin of moderate prominence. Mouth wide, oblique; lower 
jaws longer, much produced downward, forming a median keel; mavxillaries 
extending below about half of the eye. Teeth very small, apparently in 
a single series on each jaw. Eye small, less than one sixth of the length 
of the head, and less than one half of the interorbital space. Gill rakers 
seven plus fifteen, little longer than the eye, compressed, acuminate. 
Pseudobranchiz small. 
Dorsal origin in front of half-way from the snout to the base of the 
caudal; base less than half the length of its distance from the snout. Anal 
origin below the ninth ray of the dorsal, seventh anal ray below hindmost 
dorsal ray. Caudal peduncle, from the dorsal, three fourths as long as 
the head. Bases of the pectorals forward of the base of the dorsal and 
backward of the insertions of the ventrals, fin long, extending above the 
greater portion of the base of the anal. Ventrals nearly one diameter of 
the eye forward of the pectorals, elongate. 
Scales large, apparently about twenty along the lateral line. 
——— reer 
