collected during the Voyage of the ^Challenger.'' 23 



remarkably short, the gill-rakers long, lanceolate, stifF. 

 Scales extremely small. Bones of the head soft. 



Acanthonus armatus. 



The head of this remarkable fish appears of an extraordinary 

 thickness compared with the thin and compressed trunk and 

 tail ; it is very broad across the frontal region, and not much 

 longer than high, the small eye being much nearer to the end 

 of the snout than to the gill-opening. The snout would be 

 truncated in front ; but its upper portion projects, terminating 

 in two short acute spines. The large mouth is slightly 

 oblique, the maxillary extending backwards beyond the middle 

 of the length of the head. The jaws are equal in front. Two 

 sharp edges run along each ramus of the mandible, to receive 

 between them a wide muciferous channel. 



North of New Guinea, 1075 fathoms. 



Bathygadus. 



Snout not projecting beyond the mouth. Mouth wide, 

 anterior and lateral. Eye small or of moderate size. Teeth 

 in both jaws villiform, in narrow bands, which occupy the 

 whole length of the jaws. Barbels present or absent. The 

 two dorsal fins are almost continuous ; and the anterior rays of 

 the second are not shortened, but gradually diminish in length 

 in the narrow posterior portion of the tail. Anal rays feeble. 

 Bones of the head cavernous, soft, without prominent ridges. 

 Scales small, cycloid, deciduous. 



Bathygadus cottoides. 



The head is large, thick, and, m the nuchal region, of con- 

 siderable depth. 



Deep sea between New Zealand and Kermadec Island 

 (Stations 169-171), 520-700 fathoms. 



Macrurus longirostris. 



Allied to Macrurus trachyrhynchris. The snout is pro- 

 duced into a long flattened process, pointed anteriorly, and not 

 quite twice as long as the large eye. Scales of the body with 

 smooth surface, but with from three to seven spinelets on the 

 margin. They are rather irregularly arranged, there being 

 four in a transverse series between the lateral line and dorsal 

 fin. A series of projecting triangular spines along each side 

 of the neck and the base of the anterior portion of the dorsal 

 fin ; a similar series along each side of the base of the anal 



