596 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



specimen was taken at Unalaska by Dr. W. H. Dall ; another* was 

 obtained off Eureka, California (Humboldt Bay), by A. J. Wiley and J. 

 B. Brown ; and still another came ashore on the coast of San Luis Obispo 

 County, California, in October, 1894. Steller's specimen, t " Piscem hunc 

 mirabilis structure et format," seems to be this species rather than Ale- 

 pisaurus borealis. (^sculapius, the father of medicine, from the lancet- 

 like teeth.) 



Playyodus, STELLER, in PALLAS, Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., m, 383, 1811, Kurile Islands. 

 Alepidosaurus sesculapius, BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1882, CGI, Iliuliuk, Unalaska. (Type, 

 No. 27705. Coll. Robert King); Flora Hartley, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci., 1895. 



Subgenus CAULOPUS, Gill. 

 891. ALEPISAURUS ALT1VELIS, Poey. 



(CONEJO.) 



Head 6i in total length; depth 13i; eye 5. D. 40; A. 17; P. 16; V. 

 13; C. 30 ; B. 7. Maxillary extending beyond eye. Dorsal very high, its 

 height 3 times depth of body ; pectorals falcate, their length twice depth 

 of body; ventrals reaching vent, their length less than depth of body; 

 caudal forked, with equal lobes. Lateral line distinct. Color silvery, 

 with blue shades. Length 3 feet. Cuba; in deep water. (Poey.) 

 (altus, high; velum, sail.) 



Alepisaurus altivelis, POEY, Memorias, u, 302, 1861, Cuba; GUNTHER, Cat., v, 423, 1864. 

 Alepidosaurus (Caulopm) poetji, I GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862, 131, Cuba; (based on a 

 specimen slightly different in proportions, the upper lobe of the caudal longest). 



892. ALEPISAURUS BOBEALIS (Gill). 

 (HAND-SAW FISH.) 



Depth of head 4 times its length; eye 5|; snout 2|. D. 34; V. 13; 

 B. 5. Nostrils nearer eye than tip of snout ; opercle with 18 prominent 

 ridges ; sujbopercle divided into two parts by a horizontal ridge, the 

 upper part irregularly triangular, with about 9 stria 1 , ; the lower part 

 with coarse striae, the upper ones interrupted behind by 2 or 3 ridges 

 parallel with the posterior border; lower jaw robust, its length 1 in 

 head, its upper edge slightly convex. Teeth on the upper jaw very 



* This specimen differs somewhat from Bean's type, as the following description shows: 

 "Head 5%; depth 9. D. 36; A. 16; V. 10. Eye 2% in snout, 5% in head; pectoral long, fal- 

 cate, and pointed, 1% in head; ventrals about 2% in head; space between pectorals and ventrals 

 3% in body; insertion of ventrals slightly nearer base of caudal than tip of snout; dorsal fin 

 very high, depressible in a groove, the longest rays (2d to 15th) 4)/ in length of body and about 

 % longer than head; anal low, but slightly falcate in front, the free edge concave; caudal 

 deeply forked, the lobes pointed and equal. Color dark iridescent, a round pale spot on body at 

 base of each ray of anterior half of dorsal. Description from photographs taken by Mr. 

 Augustus J. Wiley of Eureka, from a large specimen which ran ashore near Humboldt Bay in 

 1892. The specimen was not preserved, but at the time the photographs were taken it was in 

 better condition than any other specimen yet seen in the Pacific. It would seem to differ from 

 A. sesculapius in the much higher dorsal, and perhaps in the more slender tail. 



fThis was a dried specimen 44 inches long; pectoral G inches; ventral 2% inches; description 

 chiefly of the teeth. 



I Head 7 in length instead of 6%, as in altivelis; the depth 15. From base of pectoral to base 

 of anal the same distance as to the anal, less % (instead of less %); first dorsal ray Y?. * ne next 

 (y z in altivelis); fourth longer; sixth to twenty-fourth nil high and equal (2 to 22 high and equal 

 in altivelis). D. 41. Upper lobe of caudal prolonged, the lobes separate. Ventral reaching past 

 vent, its length greater than depth of body. Color of dorsal uniform. Poey. 



