184 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



large, two thirds as long as the snout, nearly one fifth of the length of tlie 

 head, rising to the level of the crown. Mouth wide, cleft descending back- 

 ward to below the middle of the eye, lower jaw longer. Teetli medium, 

 slender, acute, compressed near the point, depressible, in a couple of widely 

 set series on jaws and vomer, outer series smaller. No palatine teeth. 

 Chin prominent, blunt, ascending gradually forward, without a barbel. Gill 

 opening wide, extending forward farther than the middle of eye ; mem- 

 branes slightly united, free from the isthmus. Four gills, a short cleft 

 behind the fourth; first arch bearing eighteen slender rakers on its outer 

 edge, the longest two thirds as long as the eye. Nostrils small, widely 

 separated across the head, nearer to the eye than to the end of the snout, 

 posterior subcrescentic, anterior smaller, circular, close to the posterior. 



First dorsal originating above the bases of the pectorals, the length of its 

 base liardly equal to that of the snout, third and fourth rays longest, form- 

 ing an acute angle with the shorter rays behind them. Second dorsal sepa- 

 rated from the first by less than half of the ocular diameter, nearly divided 

 into two parts by a notch at the sixteenth ray, which is the shortest, longest 

 rays among the hinder, not reaching the caudal, rounded on the angles. 

 Anal fin like the second dorsal, with a notch at the sixteenth ray, and with 

 its longest rays near the caudal base. Caudal more than half as long as the 

 head, hind margin slightly indented. Pectorals narrow, long, two thirds as 

 long as the head or longer, reaching to the fifth ray of the anal or backward. 

 Ventrals small, little more than two thirds as long as the pectorals, bases 

 forward of those of the latter, extremities not reaching to the vent. 



Scales small, those of the lateral line somewhat larger, very thin, marked 

 with fine concentric strias, very small on the top of the head and on the 

 opercles, in about thirteen series above the lateral line and thirty-nine be- 

 low it. Anteriorly the lateral line U above the middle of the flank, to which 

 it descends near the middle of the total length, whence it continues distinctly 

 visible to tlie caudal. On tlie head the sensory apparatus of the lateral sys- 

 tem takes on a peculiar appearance, Plate LXXXII. fig. 1. Tlie distribu- 

 tion of the disks corresponds with that of the Brotuloids or with other 

 Gadidae, Plate LXXXII. fig. 2. The disks differ somewhat in their irregu- 

 lar sizes and in their shapes, being like short transverse bands apparently 

 without the circular or oval centra. The upper or glandular layer appears 

 to be evenly spread over the entire upper surface of the band and does not 

 show limits as in all the other species dissected. These difierences no doubt 



