254 Storer's Synopsis of the Fishes of North Jlmerica. 



the second over the interval between the ventral and anal fins. The skin 

 rough. Snout short and blunt. Temporal orifices very small. Teeth very 

 small, numerous, conical, edges smooth, no lateral denticles. Branchial open- 

 ings large, nearly encircling the neck. 



1. Selachus maximus, Lin. 



Body cylindrical, fusiform. Above of a dark slate-color, lighter beneath. Snout blunt. 

 Eyes very small. Jaws furnished with a great number of small, conical, recurved teeth. In 

 a specimen I examined a few years since, fourteen hundred teeth were counted in the lower 

 jaw. A carina on each side of tail. 



D. (?). P. (.')■ V. (?)• A. (?). C. (?). Length, 30 feet. 



Greenland, Fabricius. Massachusetts, Storer. New York, Mitchill, Dekay. New 

 Jersey, Lesueur. 



Squalus maximus, Lin., Syst. Nat., i. p. 400. 



" " Basking Shark, Pennant's Brit. Zob'l., in. p. 134, pi. 16. 



" " " " Shaw's Gen. Zool., v p. 327, pi. 149. 



" Fabricius, Fauna Groentandica, p. 130. 



" " Basking Shark, Jenyns's Brit. Vert., p. 503, sp. 193. 



Squalus peregrinus, Blainyille, Ami. du Mus., xvni, pi. 6, fit:. 1. 



Squalus maximus, Basking Shark, Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., I. p. 486. 

 Squalus elephas, Lesueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc, n. p. 343, pi. 



Squalus (Selaehe) maximus (Cuv.), Basking Sliark, Rich., Fauna Boreal. Americ, III. p. 291. 

 Selachus maximus, Basking Shark, Sun-fish, Sail -fish, Yarrell's Brit. Fishes (2d edit.), II. p. 51S, fig. 



" " " " Griffith's Cuv., x. p. 603. 



Squalus elephas (Lesueur), Storer's Pieport, p. 407. 

 Selachus maximus, Basking Shark, Dekay's Report, p. 357, pi. 63, fig. 208, 



GENUS VI. ACANTHIAS, Risso. 



Two dorsal fins, with a spine before each ; first dorsal behind the line of the 



pectorals ; the second dorsal over the space between the ventral and caudal 



fins ; no anal fin. Skin rough in one direction ; the scales heart-shaped, with 



a central spine directed backwards. Temporal spiracles large. Several rows 



of teeth in both jaws, cutting and sharp, the points directed outwards and 



backwards. 



1. Acanthias Americanus, Storer. 



All the upper part of the body is of a slate color, which is deeper upon the head and 

 lighter below the lateral line ; beneath white. A row of circular white spots are situated 

 just under the anterior portion of the lateral line, and a few similar spots are irregularly dis- 

 tributed upon the back. The first dorsal fin commences posterior to the anterior third of the 

 body ; the second dorsal is nearer to the first dorsal fin than it is to the extremity of the tail. 

 Upper lobe of the caudal broad, and as long again as the lower portion. 



