300 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathyhial Fishes 



of tLe total, and just in excess of the greatest heiglit of the 

 body. The tail is rather abruptly constricted ; its greatest 

 height, behind the vent, is about | that of the trunk, and 

 behind tliis it rapidly diminishes. 



Snout faintly trihedral ; its length is equal to the major 

 diameter of the orbit and to the width of the flattened inter- 

 orbital space at its middle, and all but ^ of the length of the 

 head. 



Nostrils very large, the anterior subtubular in appearance. 



Mouth quite inferior; the maxilla almost reaches the 

 vertical through the middle of the orbit. Teeth in broad 

 villiform bands in both jaws, and in the lower an inner row 

 of moderately and in the upper an outer row of considerably 

 enlarged, conical, acute teeth. 



Barbel about | as long as the eye. 



Gill-membranes broadly united, thick, coriaceous ; attach- 

 ment of first branchial arch to opercle broad. 



Body and head, except the glosso-hyal region, covered 

 with rather deciduous spinigerous scales ; those on the body 

 uniformly large and deeply imbricating. There are live rows 

 between the first dorsal fin and the lateral line. A scale from 

 the dorsal half of the trunk is \ of an inch high by \ of an 

 inch broadj with a shallow, triangular, non-imbricate area 

 bearing about t\\ enty-eight close, parallel, longitudinal series 

 of small, equal, close-set, semierect spinelets. 



First dorsal spine rudimentary ; the second slightly pro- 

 longed, its front edge faintly crenulated in its basal, sharply 

 serrated in its distal half. The interval between the first and 

 second dorsal fins is equal to the length of the base of the 

 first, or a little more than the length of the snout. The 

 pectorals measure rather more than half the length of the 

 head. Ventrals with the first ray slightly prolonged, reaching 

 to the origin of the anal. 



Stomach siphonal ; intestine very long, much coiled. 

 Fourteen or fifteen large long pyloric caeca. Liver large, 

 both lobes almost equally developed. An air-bladder. 



Colours in the fresh state : — Chocolate, with blackish fins ; 

 oro-pharyngo-branchial membrane and parietal peritoneum 

 black. 



One specimen — a female with gravid ovaries — measuring 

 22 inches in length and weighing (after preservation in spirit) 

 I2 pound. 



Station 104, 1000 fathoms. 



