155 
with many plications or wrinkles. It has two pairs of barbels to- 
wards its front portion, a long widely spaced pair before, and a 
shorter blunt pair nearer the margin of the mouth and _ further 
back. 
To a fisherman the chief peculiarity of the blind-eel is its faculty 
of secreting an apparently unlimited quantity of thick slime. This 
product is exuded from two rows of glands running one on each side 
of the animal. The external apertures are below the middle of the 
body in the same line as the anterior gill-openings, and, where these 
latter occur, the mucous pores are situated each close below a breath- 
ing-opening but somewhat posterior to it. As the posterior gill- 
openings are deflected downwards, as before described, the hinder 
slime-pores are also thrown out of line, but the original line is re- 
sumed by the pore following the last gill-opening: it is therefore 
placed considerably higher than the one immediately preceding it. 
The mucous or slime pores commence on the head, and are continued 
at regular intervals to nearly the end of the tail, a short break oc- 
curring over the vent, corresponding to the omission of two pores: 
here also the.regular line is broken, the post-ventral pores occupying 
a higher position. There are about seventy-five pores on the body, 
of which fourteen to sixteen are anterior to the gill-openings and 
thirteen on the tail. The position of the mucous-pores corresponds 
to the myotomes or muscle-bands. 
There is a low fold of skin on the lower surface of the body arising 
posterior to its middle length, and continued to the vent: there is 
no fold on the upper surface. The vent lies at the base of the tail, 
its distance from the extremity being little more than half that of 
the first gill-opening from the tip of the snout: this latter distance 
is one-fourth of the entire length or three times the space between 
the first and last gill-openings. 
Anteriorly the body is circular in section, but towards the middle 
becomes compressed and deeper, its depth being about one-tenth its 
length; the compression increases towards the tail, which has an 
eel-like form: it does not taper, however, its extremity being sub- 
truncate. 
The teeth are very peculiar, but well adapted to their function : 
there is a single tooth in the mid-line above, directed backwards, but 
capable of being erected ; it is rather long and spine-like. The lower 
series of teeth, situated on the tongue, are much more complicated : 
they comprise two pairs of longitudinal flexible plates, set combwise, 
the anterior ones being confluent at the base. The teeth are directed 
inwards and backwards, and there are twelve in each of the series 
in the specimen examined—that is, forty-eight in all. All the teeth, 
including the single upper one, are deep-yellow in colour. 
When in repose the teeth lie a long way down the throat, and it 
would seem impossible for the creature to seize its prey. When, 
