SCOPELENGYS DISPAR. 209 
snout to the base of the caudal. Head two thirds as wide as deep, two 
sevenths of the total length, slightly convex across the crown and concave 
in the outline between the nape and the end of the snout. Snout broad, 
blunt, three times as long as the eye, prominent at the mandibular sym- 
physis and slightly so above the intermaxillaries. Eye small, one tenth as 
long as the head, less than half as wide as the interorbital space, lateral, 
touching the outline of the top of head. Mouth very wide, oblique ; 
cleft extending farther backward than the eye; maxillary entirely sub- 
tended by the intermaxillary, reaching one diameter of the orbit farther 
back than the latter, posterior extremity as broad as or broader than the 
eye. Teeth small, hooked, depressible, in bands of moderate width on the 
jaws, palatines, and vomer, somewhat paddle-shaped, broadening in the upper 
half or two fifths as if by a flange at each side of the cusp, rounded, as if 
for scraping or cutting, rather than acute at the apex (Plate LIV. fig. 2*-2). 
The vomerine bands are short and are situated at each side of the vomer, ex- 
tending inward and forward, but separated from one another by a wide 
space. The palatine bands are very narrow and long. Four gills, a slit 
behind the fourth; lamellae well developed, as long as the eye; three 
rudimentary rakers on the front edge of the upper section of the first arch 
and six to eight slender rigid acuminate rakers (longest one and one third 
times as long as the eye), with several rudiments, on the edge of the lower 
section; membranes narrowly united, free from the isthmus. Pseudobran- 
chize rudimentary. Scales large, largest wider than the eye, thin, deciduous, 
apparently extending forward over the head. 
Dorsal originating near the end of the anterior third of the entire length, 
about halfway from the end of the snout to the adipose fin; hind end of 
base close to the middle of the total length; longest ray half as long as 
the head. Vent very little farther back than the base of the dorsal. Anal 
origin one length of the orbit behind the vent. Adipose fin not fimbriated, 
above the tenth anal ray. Caudal forked. Ventral origin nearly below 
that of the dorsal. Pectorals about three fifths as long as the head, near 
the ventral surface, reaching farther backward than the bases of the 
ventrals. 
A female seven inches in length contains an immense number of minute 
eggs that judging from their firmness may be nearly mature though not 
more than one sixty-fourth of an inch in diameter. 
Intense black outside and within on the linings of the body cavity. 
