282 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



structure in I.ferox is like that in I. antrostomvs and has the same functions. 

 Ventrals small, narrow, as long as the cleft of the mouth, below the fifth 

 dorsal ray. Caudal narrow, deeply forked, with ten short rays above and 

 eight below. 



Black, with glandular patches appearing like transverse or longitudinal 

 series of grayish blotches ; caudal yellow ; inflated portion of the barbel 

 li<dit. 



Very few deep sea species belonging to this grouja are known, and none 

 of them occur in the material of the present report. Argentina, Micros- 

 toma, Pterothrissus, and Bathylagus are given places in the lists of deep 

 sea genera by different authors; but most of the species are ordinarily 

 taken near the surface and it is only those of Bathylagus which are marked 

 bathybial with any degree of confidence, they being least likely to have 

 entered the net near the surface. Of the haul in which the first discovered 

 species of this genus was secured Mr. Murray says the dredge was in the 

 water seven hours and did not appear to touch the bottom, yet it brought 

 up the fish, shrimps, medusae, and other animals, most of which, as he thinks, 

 were taken '"in the intermediate water between a depth of 100 fathoms 

 fi'om the surfixce and a short distance from the bottom " (Narr. Chall. Exp., 

 I, 903). Bathylagus is the genus of most interest at this time because of its 

 distribution. Though, like the others of the group, it cannot positively be 

 called a fish of the bottom, the pro'babilities are that it lives at the greater 

 distances below the surface. One of the species was obtained by the 

 '•Challenger" in the south Atlantic at a station for which the given depth 

 is 2040 fathoms, and another was brought by the same vessel from the Ant- 

 arctic, taken in a depth of 1950 fathoms ; two species were caught by the 

 " Albatross " off the eastern coasts of the United States in depths ranging 

 from GOO to 1769 fathoms; and two others, also obtained by the "Albatross," 

 have been described from the northwestern coasts of the United States, the 

 stations being of various depths between 322 and 877 fathoms. 



