THE REV. R. T. LOWE ON ALEPISAURUS. 397 
the external angle of the mouth, or termination of the commissure. The teeth in the 
lower jaw do not extend backwards beyond a point corresponding nearly with that in 
which the palatal teeth terminate in the upper jaw: between one fourth and one fifth of 
the whole length of each jaw, from the external termination of the commissure, is thus 
unarmed posteriorly. 
The tongue is small, very narrow, convex in the middle, smooth and black. 
The branchiostegous membrane, in this third individual, has seven rays on each 
side. 
The pectoral fins are longer than the head, or between one eighth and one ninth of 
the entire length. The ventral fins are not quite half the length of the pectoral fins, 
and more of a triangular form; while the pectoral fins are contracted at the base, with- 
out any posterior angle, and thus are truly lanceolate. The first ray of both the pec- 
toral and ventral fins is rough, like the first ray of the first dorsal fin. 
The dorsal fin was so perfect in the present specimen, that the following account 
of it may be depended on, so far as regards the individual. It differs considerably in 
outline from the formerly published figure, being less arched, or more straight and 
parallel with the line of the back ; not highest in the middle, but towards the hinder 
end, and having the fourth ray in front produced beyond those immediately adjoining ; 
the intermediate portion being nearly horizontal, or very gradually rising backwards. 
Its form is thus something like that of the dorsal fin in Histiophorus Indicus, Cuv. & 
Val., as represented in the ‘ Histoire Naturelle des Poissons’!, only the anterior part in 
this Alepisaurus is much lower. It consists of forty-four unbranched or simple inarti- 
culated rays, whose points are certainly not produced beyond the membrane. The first 
ray is on a line with the first ray of the pectoral fins, and rough with oblique transverse 
grooves in front : it is 4 inches long, which is something more than the greatest depth 
of the fish in any part. The two next rays are longer, each an inch, than the preceding, 
and smooth or even, like all the following. The fourth ray is more than twice the 
length of the first (94 inches), but not produced beyond the membrane. The fifth ray 
is 2 inches shorter than the fourth, or just the length of the pectoral fins ; and the ten 
or twelve? next are nearly the same length as the fifth, or gradually a very little longer, 
proceeding backwards. The following rays become more rapidly elongated to the 
twenty-fourth, which, with the twenty-third, is about the same length as the fourth 
ray. This twenty-fourth ray is at about two thirds of the length of the whole dorsal fin 
from its origin. The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth rays are but little shorter than the 
twenty-third or twenty-fourth. The last eighteen rays decrease rapidly in length, and 
slope more backwards than those before them: the last of all, or forty-fourth, is one 
quarter of the length of the first ray, or one inch long, and joined by a small web 
to the body at its base. The anterior rays are rather remote ; the posterior, particu- 
larly the last twenty, gradually closer and more crowded. All the rays are extremely 
' t 229. 
The eighth ray in this specimen is irregularly bent or crooked in the middle ; evidently the result of some 
former injury. 
SE 36 
