VAAGMAER. 



21 



is only a little longer than the first. The rays are slender, 

 flexible spines, without the slightest trace of transverse marks; 

 their articulating surface dilates into a saddle-shaped shield, 

 with a short curved point in the centre, by which a number 

 of small sharp bodies appear along the root of the fin. The 

 rays themselves, however, are quite smooth to the touch, and, 

 under a lens, are, as M. Valenciennes in his own specimen 

 found them, a little sharp. 



The more or less vertically raised caudal fin contains eight 

 rays; the length of the upper and under ray is to the length 

 of the two central rays as four to three. The' latter named 

 rays are sharp to the touch, and viewed through a lens are 

 observed to be studded over with a number of small spines. 



