OPIIIDIOIDS. 141 



with eight or ten rays. No traces of ventrals. Pectorals strong, broad, 

 short, two tliirds as long as the head, posterior margin broadly convex. A 

 iloxible angle at the hind end of the operculum, but no spine. Scales very 

 small, resembling pores in appearance, not in contact, absent on head and 

 shoulders to origin of dorsal fin, smallor on dorsal and anal fin,s. 



Color greyish brown, with an olivaceous tint; scales lighter, like small 

 freckles ; pectorals and other fins darker. 



Total length 19| inches; body cavity 7f ; head 2|. 



Station. Latitude. Longitude. Deptli. Temperature. Bottom. 



3361 6° 10' N. 83° 6' \V. 1471 fathoms 36.6° F. Green ooze. 



OPHIDIOIDS. 



The expedition obtained specimens of one species of this group, Lepopliid- 

 t'um emmclas Gilb., at seven different stations. Three of the lots were taken 

 between seven and eight degrees of north latitude, near the meridian of 

 eighty degrees west longitude, and the four others about eight degrees 

 farther north and nearly twenty degrees farther Avest. The lots taken at 

 the northward have a slightly darker appearance than those taken farther 

 south, those secured nearer the surface are lighter in colors than those from 

 the deeper levels, and the younger individuals are not so dark as the older. 

 The youngest specimens were captured in the shoalest water ; those taken 

 at a depth of 94 fathoms were all less than three inches in length. The 

 rostral spines are prominent on those of a length of one and one half inches. 

 The sjiecimens described b}^ Gilbert were obtained about ten degrees still 

 farther to the northward and as many degrees still farther toward the west, 

 which, with the present material, gives the species a determined range 

 included between the parallels of seven and twenty-six degrees of north 

 latitude, and between tlie meridians of seventj'-nine and one hundred and 

 twelve degrees of west longitude. The vertical range reaches from a depth 

 of 94 to one of 511 fathoms. The temperatures of the bottom range from 

 40.6 degrees above zero Fahrenheit for the greatest depths to 56 degrees for 

 the depth nearest the surface, from which latter, as it happened, the 

 youngest specimens were caught. Apparently the species deposits its 

 spawn in the shoaler waters under the wanner temperatures, and within 

 reach of the sunlight, and retires to the cold and the dark of the levels 

 farther down. This in case of individuals from five hundred fathoms or 

 more below the surface would call for a veiy considerable vertical migration 



