148 ARCTIC CHIMERA. 



place where the lateral lines of each side join each other. 

 The second is very narrow and short. The ventral fins enclose 

 the orifice of the vent, and, like the pectorals, are united to 

 a fleshy base. Its mouth is small, and each jaw is supplied 

 with two long plates with cutting edges, having furrows that 

 cause them to resemble distinct incisor teeth. In the palate 

 also are two flat and triangular teeth. Besides the crest which 

 stands in front of the head, near the snout of the male fish, 

 there are before the ventral fins two organs, which are in 

 some degree like small feet, and have nails, but their use 

 is the same as that of the claspers in the Sharks and Skates. 

 It is only at the time of depositing its eggs that this fish 

 comes into shallow water, and it is then seen only at night, 

 for the brightness of sunshine appears to dazzle its eyes. Its 

 ordinary food is crabs and shell-fish, but it also feeds eagerly 

 on herrings, and probably also on other fish. 



We add a short description from Dr. Fleming, as referred 

 to at the beginning of this article, of an example sent to him 

 from the Orkney Islands; the more especially as it shews some 

 difference from that of Lacepede: — The length nearly three 

 feet; body compressed. Head blunt; the snout sub-ascending 

 and blunt. A narrow crenulated grinder on each side in the 

 lower jaw, and a broad tubercular one corresponding above. 

 Nostrils immediately above the upper lip, contiguous, each 

 with a cartilaginous complicated valve. Branchial openings in 

 front of the pectorals, (and it appears from some observers 

 that the marks of the five internal channels are visible on the 

 surface, although the outlet of the gills is single on each 

 side.) Eyes large, lateral. The lateral line connected with 

 numerous waved anastomosing grooves on the cheeks and face. 

 On the crown in front of the eyes a thin osseous plate, bent 

 forwards, with a spinous disk at the extremity on the lower 

 side. The first dorsal fin above the pectorals narrow, with a 

 strong spine along the anteal edge. The second dorsal arises 

 immediately behind the first, is narrow, and is continued to 

 the caudal one, where it terminates suddenly. The pectorals 

 are large and sub-triangular; ventrals rounded, in front of 

 each a broad recurved osseous plate, with recurved spines on 

 the ventral edge. Claspers pedunculated, divided into three 

 linear segments; the anteal one simple, the rctral ones having 



