258 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
rays of the latter are shorter. Elongate, slender, depth nearly one seventh 
of the total length, moderately compressed. Head depressed, rather higher 
than deep at the nape, length one fourth of that from snout to base of 
caudal. Snout broad, as seen from above curving to a blunt point, wider 
than deep, length one third of that of the head, about six times that of the 
eye, or equalling the width of the interorbital space; lower jaws longer. 
Eye small, one fifteenth as long as the head. Mouth wide, horizontal, ex- 
tending less than one third of its length backward of the orbit; maxillary 
reaching about five eighths of the head length, not entering the border of 
the mouth, broadening downward behind the mandible then curving upward 
to meet the nearly horizontal superior border in a blunted angle ; inter- 
maxillary very long, slender, subtending the maxillary in the mouth cleft. 
Teeth in villiform bands on mandibles and intermaxillaries, in a small group 
at each lateral edge of the vomer and in a bunch of several near the front 
end of each palatine, very small, subconical, slightly hooked, with strong 
bases. The snout to the back of the eyes is covered with soft, porous, easily 
detached, light colored skin that may be luminous. A notch at the junction 
of the intermaxillaries receives the blunt angle behind the mandibular 
symphysis. Vent half way from the bases of the ventrals to the caudal. 
Forward rays of the dorsal when applied to the back reaching as far as 
the hindmost, seventh ray midway from the snout to the base of the 
caudal and above the vent, end of the dorsal base above the middle of the 
space between the vent and the anal. Adipose dorsal half way from 
the seventh dorsal ray to the base of the caudal. Anal origin half way 
from the maxillary to the caudal base, fin reaching a vertical from behind 
the base of the adipose dorsal, anterior rays longest, posterior border con- 
cave. Ventrals nearly halfway from the mouth to the anal; outer pair of rays 
elongate, broadened, compressed, second ray a little the longer, not bound 
together for a short distance at their ends; third ray more than half as long 
as the second. No two individuals agree in the lengths of these rays; on 
the specimen described they extend some distance farther back than the 
anal, but on others they are much shorter. On some the ventrals reach to 
the middle of the anal; on others they almost reach the base of the caudal 
and the ends of the two long rays are thickened and fleshy, possibly in a 
sexual growth similar to that obtaining on certain Cyprinoids and Cyprino- 
donts. Upper portion of the pectoral of three rays, two of them very long, 
bound together in the greater portion of their length, reaching a little 
