40a DESCRIPTION (Octobej:, 



The length of my specimen is fifty inches; the depth 

 ■almost five; and the girth something short of twelve • 

 After having been gutted and freed from offal, he weigh- 

 ed nine pounds; and frequently is several pounds heavier. 

 The lips are remarkably thick and fleshy. Nostrils tubu* 

 lar. Eyes covered with the common skin. Branchial rays 

 nine. The tongue smooth; fleshy at the sides and tip; 

 and furnished with a distinct froenum. 



The teeth separate and acute: in the upper jaw, a sin- 

 gle serrated row, which enlarges to a toothed patch 

 reaching back along the palate, more than half an inch. 

 In the lower jaw, traces of two rows of short and small 

 teeth within the outer serrated row. 



In the throat, two roundish patches of short file-Hke 

 teeth above; and an oblong one on each posterior bran- 

 chial arch below. 



The jaws are even, there being neither the projection 

 of the upper as in the conger, nor of the lower as in the 

 common eel. 



The anal, caudal and dorsal fins are continuous. Com- 

 mencing immediately behind the vent, the anal proceeds 

 backwards until it unites with the caudal, and the caudal 

 is continued forward until it joins the dorsal, and this lat- 

 ter runs along until it reaches a point on the back about 

 three inches in arrears of the origin of the pectoral fins. 

 They are tipped all around wdth a margin or border of a 

 dark or somewhat blueish colour. 



The vent is nearer the head; the distance from that 

 orifice to the extremity of the lower jaw being only twen- 

 ty inches and a half. 



The tail is not so round as in the common eel; or m 

 other words it is more taper and elongated. 



