scopklenc;ys dispar. 255 



snout to the base of the caudal. Head two tliirds as wide as deep, two 

 seventlis of the total length, slightly convex across the crown and concave 

 in the outline between the nape and the end of the snout. Snout broad, 

 blunt, three times as long as the eye, prominent at the mandibular sym- 

 physis and slightly so above the intermaxillaries. Eye small, one tenth as 

 long as the head, less than half as wide as the interorbital space, lateral, 

 touching the outline of the top of head. Mouth very Avide, ol)lique ; 

 cleft extending farther backward than the eye ; maxillary entirely sub- 

 tended by the intermaxillary, reaching one diameter of the orbit farther 

 back than the latter, posterior extremity as broad as or bi'oader than the 

 eye. Teeth small, hooked, depressible, in bands of moderate width on the 

 jaws, palatines, and vomer, somewhat paddle-shaped, broadening in the upper 

 half or two fifths as if by a flange at each side of the cusp, rounded, as if 

 for scraping or cutting, rather than acute at the apex (Plate LIV. fig. 2''-2''). 

 The vomerine bands are short and are situated at each side of the vomer, ex- 

 tending inward and forward, but separated from one another by a wide 

 space. The palatine bands are very narrow and long. Four gills, a slit 

 behind the fourth ; lamellaj well developed, as long as the eye ; three 

 rudimentary rakers on the front edge of the upper section of the first arch 

 and six to eight slender rigid acuminate rakers (longest one and one third 

 times as long as the eye), with several rudiments, on the edge of the lower 

 section; membranes narrowly united, free from the isthmus. Pseudobran- 

 chite rudimentary. Scales large, largest wider than the eye, thin, deciduous, 

 apparently extending forward over the head. 



Dor-^al originating near the end of the anterior third of the entire length, 

 about halfway from the end of the snout to the adipose fin; hind end of 

 base close to the middle of the total length ; longest ray half as long as 

 the head. Vent very little farther back than the base of the dorsal. Anal 

 origin one length of the orbit behind the vent. Adipose fin not fimbriated, 

 above the tenth anal ray. Caudal forked. Ventral origin nearly below 

 that of the dorsal. Pectorals about three fifths as long as the head, near 

 the ventral surface, reaching farther backward than the bases of the 

 ventrals. 



A female seven inches in length contains an immense number of mnuite 

 eggs that judging from their firmness may be nearly mature though not 

 more than one sixty-fourth of an inch in diameter. 



Intense black outside and within on the linings of the body cavity. 



