taken off the coast of Northumberland. 3 
elongated pyramidal outline with the base rounded, PI. I. fig. 4, 
which are formed of fine clear crystalline-looking filaments, 
arranged side by side and radiating from the apex to the base 
of the scale ; these filaments grow much finer towards the base, 
where a number of minute granules are also observed. The 
scales remind one of some of those seen on the wings of moths. 
The bulk of the silvery matter of the skin, however, is made up of a 
soft matter finely granular, and presenting numerous transparent 
fragments of what have the aspect of acicular crystalline bodies. 
We have not been able to detect the mode of arrangement of the 
scale-like bodies on the skin. Round the posterior margin of the 
preoperculum is a broadish dusky mark on the skin, and near 
the top of the head above the eye a crescentic mark of a dark 
iridescent blue colour ; besides these there are on the side of the 
body several narrow, dusky black, slightly waved lines consider- 
ably apart from each other and obliquely inclined from before 
backwards ; of these eight or nine are above the lateral line and 
of unequal ‘length ; below the same line they are more numerous, 
diminishing in size on the whole till they end in mere spots at 
some distance behind the anus. The lower series seems to cor- 
respond in some measure to the upper. Interspersed among the 
lines are a few irregular spots of the same hue towards the head. 
The dorsal and ventral ridges are also dusky. The lateral line 
was at first smooth and very distinct, but after the fish had been 
a few days in Goadby’s fluid, elongated flat scales became appa- 
rent on the line; it can be traced from the back part of the head 
above and behind the eye, sweeping down gradually to within 
34 in. of the ventral margin at 18 in. from the snout ; at the anus 
it is 2 in. from the margin ; it thence runs backwards, still ap- 
proaching the margin, to the caudal extremity. 
Four longitudinal flattened ridges, each rather more than 1 in, 
broad, extend from the head to the tail immediately above the 
lateral line, which cuts them off very obliquely in front ; the up- 
permost, which is the longest, running forwards almost to the eye. 
The surface of the skin of the body is studded with very nu- 
merous distinct and separate tubercles of bone; the smallest and 
most depressed lie between the ridges and towards the ventral 
and dorsal margins, the largest and most elevated upon the ridges, 
some of these last being 4 in. in diameter. On the ventral 
ridge are numerous, irregular, and prominent tubercles shghtly 
hooked backwards. The tubercles present no regular arrange- 
ment, they are imbedded in the skin, and it is difficult to say 
whether or not they had been covered by the silvery matter of 
the skin ; when we examined them, their apices were uncovered 
by it. Some were observed to have a perforation at the apex 
which was occupied by a soft papilla. The tubercles are replaced 
1* 
