(93] MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF THE SWORD-FISHES. 381 
of its asperities being turned backward; there are also asperities upon 
the lower jaw. The intermaxillaries, which form part of the base of the 
beak and ali of its tip, have upon their sides very small denticulations 
which point forward, and are used by the animal in an offensive attack 
against an enemy, in case it has not been able to touch it with the sharp 
point of the beak, which pierces like a dagger; the beak is extremely 
hard, especially at its extremity; it is depressed in form, with rounded 
edges; its height is greater than half its width. The preoperculum is 
somewhat far back; it begins about midway between the eye and the 
extremity of the operculum; the other opercular bones are not visible 
externally, but may be seen in the skeleton. The lateral line is indi- 
cated by a series of little holes in a continuous series, and it commences 
above the operculum, and, after having traversed a short distance lon- 
gitudinally, it bends in a direction opposite to that of the line of the 
back, and reaches the middle of the body in the region of the tip of the 
peetoral. The scales of the body are bony, linear, and are absent upon 
the head, except upon the cheeks; those in the lateral line are not per- 
“forated, but they have upon their upper surface a groove which, in con- 
nection with the skin, completes the tube which opens at the exterior 
surface of the body. All the scales are covered by the “epidermis”. 
git) Deo, 09-0 + A.D. 19-6: P19: Vo-1,.42 C. 12. 
All the fin-rays are osseous, not articulated; those whicb are indi- 
cated in the above formula as bony are only distinguished from the soft 
ones by the fact that they terminate in a point, and this point is not 
free; the others, like those of the “pectorals” and of the “ventrals”, 
are flattened at their extremity, and are divided into fibers which are 
visible rather in the form of striations than of branches or digitations. 
The three first dorsal spines and the two first spines of the “anal” are 
so anchylosed to each other and to the ray which follows them, and so 
covered by skin, that, upon first touch, one would say that they formed 
but a single bone. Dissection demonstrates that the first dorsal spine 
is very small (20 millimeters); the second is twice and a half as high 
(50 millimeters); the third more than twice as long as the second (115 
-millimeters); the fourth extends to the tip of the fin, and is more than 
twice as long as the third; it is not articulated any more than those 
which follow it, but it is branched and much compressed towards its 
tip, like those which are posterior to it. This same arrangement exists 
in the two first rays of the anal and those which foliow them. The first 
is small (30 millimeters), the second 70 millimeters, the third corre- 
sponds to the fourth of the dorsal in form, and is twice and a half as 
long as the second. The greater part of these two fins is situated in a 
furrow, and their last rays ave so small that they can be seen only by 
dissection. The first ray of the second dorsal, like that of the second 
anal, is very flat and striated throughout its entire length; both these 
fins are emarginate in their outline. The fourth ray of the first dorsal 
and the third of the first anal extend to the tip of the point, which is 
