DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 121 



of the height at that place. The teeth are fewer in number than in atun\ there not 

 being above fourteen on each intermaxillary, or twelve on each limb of the lower jaw. 

 They are all conical, acute, and much compressed, the lateral ones on the lower jaw being 

 the largest of the series. The four more interior, long and strong ones, at the sym- 

 physis of the intermaxillaries (two on each bone), are curved backwards, and are very 

 acute. There are some minute teeth on the knob of tlie vomer, which are more per- 

 ceptible to the touch than to the sight ; and there are twelve or fourteen small ones 

 on each palatine bone, inclining inwards. The bony operculum is divided into two un- 

 equal portions by a deep notch, the upper one having a squarish or truncated tip, and 

 the lower one, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the bone, a triangular form. 

 The notch is closed by integument, and its inferior point is underlaid by the tip of the 

 suboperculum, the entire gill-cover having in the recent fish a rounded outline. 



The length of the pectoral is more nearly the tenth of the total length than the twelfth, 

 as in atun, and the ventrals have nearer half the length of the pectorals than the third. 

 The dorsal spines are slender and very brittle, and the third, which is the longest, 

 is fully equal in height to the depth of the body, while in atun the spines are said to be 

 only half the height of the body. The length of the second dorsal is just equal to the 

 height of its first soft ray, and its margin is slightly crescentic. The space occupied by 

 the separate pinnules is nearly one-sixth of the whole length of the fish, being greater 

 than in ntun. It would appear, however, that even in the Cape examples there is a 

 difference in this respect. In the text of the ' Histoire des Poissons' the number of 

 pinnules above and below is said to be six ; in the formula for the rays they are put 

 down as seven, and the figure represents seven above and six below. This figure also 

 exhibits the fish as being covered on the body and head with regular and strongly marked 

 scales, while the text says " toufe la peau de ce poisson parait lisse," which is the case 

 with the Port Arthur specimen. The lateral line of altivelis curves down at the 16th 

 (instead of the 14th) dorsal spine, reaches its greatest depression between the nineteenth 

 and twentieth, undulates till it arrives opposite to the second dorsal pinnule, and from 

 thence runs straight to the base of the caudal, where it terminates wthout traversing 

 the portion of smooth silvery integument, from whence the rays emerge. The lateral line 

 is formed by a series of small, oblong, tubular scales, firmly imbedded in the epidermis. 

 There appear to be no other scales on the fish, though the epidermis wrinkles in a re- 

 ticulated manner. When a piece of the skin is placed under the microscope it shows 



' " L'intermaxil/aire n'est nuUement extensible. Vingt-cinq dents ov environ, coniques, comprimees, deforce me- 

 diocre, y sont implanti'es de chaque cute le long de son bord externe : les premUrs sont asses petites, et ne vont pas 

 jusqu'au bout antMeur ; mats sur tin rang plus interne, sous la pointe du museau, il y en a de chaque cdt^ deux ou 

 trois. trvs grandes, comprimees, crochues et tris-pointues, qui donnent le caractere le plus apparent de ce sous genre. 

 La mdchoire infMeure a de chaque c6t<? seize ou dixhuit dents comprimees, tranchantcs niguvs. plus grand que celles 

 du bord de la mdchoire superieure ; le vomer, Ssc" The figure does not represent more than twenty teeth on the 

 intermaxillary. 



VOL. III. FART I. R 



