198 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



sliort, four and three fifths times in the total, rounded on the sides and 

 below, flattened on the crown, narrowed and pointed at the snout. Snout 

 short, four fifths as long as the eye, narrowing forward, prominent, length 

 from the teeth equal that from the eye, ending in a bunch of small spines; 

 a small spinose angle at the junction of the supranarial with the suborbital 

 ridges. Suborbital ridges low, not extended on the preopercle. Skull with 

 a median ridge on the snout reaching backward to the interorbital space, 

 and with two short, curved ridges between the hind portions of the eyes 

 on the crown. Mouth medium, front edge below the anterior nostril, end 

 of maxillary a trifle in front of the hinder edge of the orbit. Teeth small, 

 subconical, in villiform bands, larger in the outer series of the upper jaws. 

 Barbel slender, as long as the orbit. The prominent edge on the preopercle 

 descends slightly backward and bears a shallow indentation above the 

 rounded lower extremity. Eye prominent, large, longer than the snout, 

 three and three fifths times in the length of the head, equal the interorbital 

 ■width. Orbits rising above the space between them. Opercular membranes 

 ■well developed, hinder angle of operculum turned np and backward and 

 reaching below the second ray of the dorsal. Base of the first dorsal hardly 

 as long as the eye, origin above the axil of the pectoral. Dorsal spine 

 smooth, or with one or two small cusps near the base, about two thirds as 

 long as the head, including the filamentary extremity. Second dorsal fin 

 low, separated from the first by one and one half times the length of the 

 base of the latter. Pectorals small, shorter than the first dorsal. Ventrals 

 small, bases below the middle of the operculum, forward of the pectorals ; 

 upper ray with a filamentary extremit}^, as long as the first dorsal ray. 



Gill membranes united, free from the isthmus ; openings wide. Four 

 gills, slits short, that behind the fourth gill very short ; rakers absent from 

 the front of the first arch, elsewhere rudimentary. 



Vent between the ventrals, nearer to their bases than to the origin of 

 the anal, from which it is separated by the length of the snout. 



Scales without spinules, thin, deciduous, with very fine striae, absent from 

 the suborbital section and the lower surface of the head. 



Length of the specimen described ten inches. 



Head black ; linings of mouth and body cavity black ; muscular por- 

 tions and fins brown to blackish. 



