REPORT ON THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. 195 



Middle of South Atlantic, Station 300; depth, 1375 fathoms. Three specimens, 9^ 

 inches long. 



Off Juan Fernandez, Station 335 ; depth, 1425 fathoms. One specimen, 4 inches long. 



The body is but slightly compressed in the middle, gradually passing into the head 

 which is depressed, and into the more compressed caudal peduncle. The greatest 

 depth is below the origin of the dorsal fin, about one-half of the length of the 

 head, and contained seven and a half times in the total length, without caudal. 

 Snout depressed, broad, with the lower jaw projecting. Mandible dilated on its ventral 

 aspect and much longer than one-half of the length of the head ; bones of the head 

 generally rather thin, leaving wide round vacuities in the course of the muciferous 

 channels, which are well developed. 



The gill-rakers of the first branchial arch are needle-shaped, closely set, the longest 

 being as long as the eye. 



Dorsal fin much higher than the body underneath, its anterior rays being much 

 longer than those of the anal fin. Caudal fin emarginate, with the upper lobe rather 

 longer than the lower. Pectoral fin elongate, with a rounded posterior margin, shorter 

 than the head, but extending beyond the dorsal fin. The ventral fins are horizontal, 

 rather broad, and show sometimes a modification of the distal half of the three or four 

 outer rays. This is seen only in the two larger specimens from Station 300, ])ut not in 

 the one from Station 168 or in the young specimen. The degree to which these rays 

 are thickened is not the same in the two specimens which show this peculiarity ; in one, 

 which is slightly the smaller, the integument at the lower side is merely thickened 

 (fig. a'), but in the larger the rays themselves are stouter, bent outwards and covered 

 below with a white and callous cushion-like enlargement of the skin (fig. a). All the 

 specimens are females. 



Scales cycloid, regularly arranged ; lateral line straight, running along the middle of 

 the body and tail. 



The stomach is short and csecal ; the intestine makes first one bend to the left and 

 then another to the right, is short and of moderate width. Two short pyloric appendages 

 opposite to each other behind the pylorus. Ovaries closed and elongate sacs. Ova of 

 the size of hemp seed. A long spindle-shaped urinary bladder lies above and on the left 

 side of the intestine. Air-bladder absent. 



Scopelus, Gthr. 



The numerous species which I refer to this genus, are, as far as we know of their 

 habits, nocturnal pelagic surface fishes, which are frequently caught at night in the 



