548 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Monterey to Kamtchatka. The Atlantic species, A. ferox, very closely allied to, if not identical 

 with, its ally in the Pacific, is found in great numbers on the offshore banks, being frequently 

 brought up on the lines of the halibut trawl fishermen from a depth of one hundred and fifty to 

 three hundred fathoms. It is one of the largest and most ferocious looking of the deep sea fishes, 

 growing to a length of six feet, its month provided with double rows of sharp, lancet-shaped teeth, 

 a half to three-quarters of an inch in length. They are very slender and lithe in form, and are the 

 personification of voracity. Giinther states that from the stomach of one example have been 

 taken several cuttle-fishes, crustaceans, and sea-sqnirts, a young Brania, twelve young boar-fishes, 

 a horse-mackerel, and one young of its own species. Nothing is known of its breeding habits. Its 

 only importance to the fisheries lies in the fact that it cumbers the hooks of the fishermen. 



THE ALEPOCEPHALUS FAMILY ALEPOCEPHALID.S;. 



This family is represented in the deep water of the Western Atlantic by two species, 

 Alepocephalus Bairdii and A. Agassisii, of each of which single specimens have been obtained on 

 the off-shore banks, a magnificent fish, attaining the length of at least three feet, shaped like a 

 salmon, covered with thin silvery scales. Only one other species of the genus is known a rare 

 fish from the Mediterranean. 



THE PARALEPIS FAMILY PARALEPID^E. 



These are small, pelagic fishes, occurring in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific. Iiuour 

 waters there are three species: In the Atlantic, Paralepis borealis, a Greenland form, of which we 

 have seen one specimen from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence; in the Pacific there are two, each 

 known from a single specimen, Sudis ringens, from the Santa Barbara Channel, and Paralepiv 

 cornscans, from the Straits of Fuca. 



THE SNAKE-FISH FAMILY SYNODONTID^E. 



The family is represented on our Atlantic coast by three species, on the Pacific by one, Synodun 

 lucioceps, which is closely related to the Atlantic species, 8. fcetens. The Pacific species occurs 

 from San Francisco southward, and is occasionally eaten. The Atlantic forms occur in the West 

 Indies and range north to Cape Cod, but are of no economic importance. 



