OPHIDIOIDS. 141 
with eight or ten rays. No traces of ventrals. Pectorals strong, broad, 
short, two thirds as long as the head, posterior margin broadly convex. A 
flexible angle at the hind end of the operculum, but no spine. Scales very 
small, resembling pores in appearance, not in contact, absent on head and 
shoulders to origin of dorsal fin, smaller on dorsal and anal fins. 
Color greyish brown, with an olivaceous tint; scales lighter, like small 
freckles; pectorals and other fins darker. 
Total length 193 inches; body cavity 7$; head 2%. 
Station. Latitude. Longitude. Depth. Temperature. Bottom. 
3361 6° 10’ N. Sari aWis 1471 fathoms 36.6° F. Green ooze. 
OPHIDIOIDS. 
The expedition obtained specimens of one species of this group, Lepophid- 
um emmelas Gilb., at seven different stations. Three of the lots were taken 
between seven and eight degrees of north latitude, near the meridian of 
eighty degrees west longitude, and the four others about eight degrees 
farther north and nearly twenty degrees farther west. The lots taken at 
the northward have a slightly darker appearance than those taken farther 
south, those secured nearer the surface are lighter in colors than those from 
the deeper levels, and the younger individuals are not so dark as the older. 
The youngest specimens were captured in the shoalest water; those taken 
at a depth of 94 fathoms were all less than three inches in length. The 
rostral spines are prominent on those of a length of one and one half inches. 
The specimens described by Gilbert were obtained about ten degrees still 
farther to the northward and as many degrees still farther toward the west, 
which, with the present material, gives the species a determined range 
included between the parallels of seven and twenty-six degrees of north 
latitude, and between the meridians of seventy-nine and one hundred and 
twelve degrees of west longitude. The vertical range reaches from a depth 
of 94 to one of 511 fathoms. The temperatures of the bottom range from 
40.6 degrees above zero Fahrenheit for the greatest depths to 56 degrees for 
the depth nearest the surface, from which latter, as it happened, the 
youngest specimens were caught. Apparently the species deposits its 
spawn in the shoaler waters under the warmer temperatures, and within 
reach of the sunlight, and retires to the cold and the dark of the levels 
farther down. This in case of individuals from five hundred fathoms or 
more below the surface would call for a very considerable vertical. migration 
