BONES OF LOPHIUS PISCATORIUS — MORROW. 3501 
but serves for the support of the lower carpal, (which is also 
much stronger than the upper), as well as to the fin rays of the 
superior edge of the pectoral fin. The lower carpal at its lower 
posterior half, at the point of junction with the inferior extre- 
mity of the upper carpal, has a thin posterior edge which con- 
tinues to its distal extremity, and round which, beginning at the 
junction with the upper carpal and continuing te its anterior 
inferior edge, the twenty-seven rays of the (65) pectoral fin are 
attached. 
80. The pubie bones which support the ventral fins are each 
attached by a strong ligament to the clavicle (see 48) of its side 
at its upper edge, about the point where the posterior cartilage 
enters and is covered by the bone. The iliac portion, if it may 
so be called, being a shaft (containing cartilage), somewhat flat- 
tened at its anterior extremity, decreasing in size towards its 
centre, from whence it widens out to form the ischio-pubic ele- 
ments, on the outer edge of which the six fin rays are attached, 
the posterior (82) five being soft rays, and the anterior ray (81) 
a comparatively short and strong spine, which has in most cases 
a slight upward and outward curve. 
67, 68, 69. The vertebral column contains twenty-nine vertebre. 
The Atlas as already mentioned (under No. 8), supports the supra- 
occipital ; the atlas, axis and the third and fourth centra are 
wider on their superior and inferior surfaces, particularly the two 
first named, than the remaining centra which gradually taper to 
the caudal extremity. The vertebra interlock on their inferior 
edges by angular processes, while their superior anterior edges 
are interlocked or supported by the neurapophyses of each 
succeeding centrum overlapping the posterior edge of its 
preceding neurapophyses, and they gradually decrease in size 
until about the nineteenth centrum, from this point being 
nearly of the same size to the twenty-seventh. The twenty- 
eighth and twenty-ninth centra have their superior pro- 
cesses very small, but the inferior interlocking processes are 
of the normal size. The axis is the shortest centrum in the 
column, being about half the length of the atlas, and not more 
than half its height at its outer edges. The twenty-eighth cen- 
