290 DEEP SEA FISHES. 
throughout the jaws, and of a dorsal extending back above the anal. 
Moderately compressed, very long, tapering comparatively little, depth 
about one seventh of the total, body cavity occupying two thirds or more 
of the total length. Head scaleless, long, about one fourth of the entire 
length, subpyramidal, four fifths as wide as deep, crown very slightly 
convex, with a median trough on the top that vanishes near the nostrils 
and is deepest near the nape. Snout large, less than one third as long as 
the head, nearly as broad as long, pointed, upper outline descending little 
from the level of the crown; chin rather steep. Nostrils close together, 
nearer the eye than the end of the snout; posterior more than twice as 
large as the anterior, oblique, narrow, elongate; anterior small, subcireular. 
Eyes lateral, large, more than half as long as the snout, nearly one sixth as 
long as the head, three fifths as wide as the interorbital space. Mouth very 
large, oblique, cleft more than half the length of the head, extending farther 
back than the eye; maxillaries forming two thirds of the edge in the upper 
jaws, posteriorly three fourths as broad as the eye, thin and rounded up 
and forward at the end; premaxillary short, half as long as the maxillary, 
extended out or forward at the edges; mandibles strong and deep backward, 
rising and tapering rapidly forward. Teeth small, subconical, hooked, 
incurved, unequal, in bands of several series on premaxille, maxilla, den- 
taries, and palatines; outer series smallest, inner much the largest and 
depressible ; a single large tooth at each side of the vomer. Hyoid with a 
prominent angle above the end and apparently without teeth. Opercular 
flap membranous, longer toward the base of the pectoral. Gills four; 
lamellz short, narrow; membranes not united, free from the isthmus; 
rakers slender, three plus thirteen on the forward edge of the first arch, 
longest less than half as long as the eye ; pseudobranchiz well developed. 
Dorsal origin ten seventeenths of the distance from the snout to the end 
of the caudal; length of base about equal to its distance from the caudal or 
to two fifths of the distance from the occiput, nearly half as long as the 
head. Anal origin below the eighth ray of the dorsal, five or six of the rays 
backward of the dorsal base. Ventrals small, inserted near the middle of the 
entire length. Vent distant from the origin of the ventrals half the length 
of the head. Pectorals small, low on the side. Caudal deeply notched. 
Scales of medium size, thin, deciduous; those of the lateral line large, 
convex or raised on the tube, which forms a rounded notch in the hinder 
margin of each scale. 
