290 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



throughout the jaws, and of a dorsal extending back above the anal. 

 Moderately compressed, very long, tapering comparatively little, depth 

 about one seventh of the total, body cavity occupying two thirds or more 

 of tlie total length. Head scaleless, long, about one fourth of the entire 

 length, subpyramidal, four fifths as wide as deep, crown very slightly 

 convex, with a median trough on the top that vanishes near the nostrils 

 and is deepest near the nape. Snout large, less than one third as long as 

 the head, nearly as broad as long, pointed, upper outline descending little 

 from the level of the crown ; chin rather steep. Nostrils close together, 

 nearer the eye than the end of the snout ; posterior more than twice as 

 large as the antei-ior, oblique, narrow, elongate ; anterior small, subcircular. 

 Eyes lateral, large, more than half as long as the snout, nearly one sixth as 

 long as the head, three fifths as wide as the interorbital space. Mouth very 

 large, oblique, cleft more than half the length of the head, extending farther 

 back than the eye ; maxillaries forming two thirds of tlie edge in the upper 

 jaws, posteriorly three fourths as broad as the eye, thin and rounded up 

 and forward at the end ; premaxillary short, half as long as the maxillary, 

 extended out or forward at the edges; mandibles strong and deep backward, 

 rising and tapering rapidly forward. Teeth small, subconical, hooked, 

 incurved, unequal, in bands of several series on premaxilla?, maxillfe, den- 

 taries, and palatines ; outer series smallest, inner much the largest and 

 depressible ; a single large tooth at each side of the vomer. Hyoid with a 

 prominent angle above the end and apparently without teeth. Opercular 

 flap membranous, longer toward the base of the pectoral. Gills four ; 

 lamelto short, narrow ; membranes not imited, free from the isthmus ; 

 rakers slender, three plus thirteen on the forward edge of the first arch, 

 longest less than half as long as the eye ; pseudobranchia3 well developed. 



Dorsal origin ten seventeenths of the distance from the snout to the end 

 of the caudal ; length of base about equal to its distance from the caudal or 

 to two fifths of the distance from the occiput, nearly half as long as the 

 head. Anal origin below the eighth ray of the dor.-al, five or six of the ra^'s 

 backward of the dorsal base. Ventrals snuill, inserted near the middle of the 

 entire length. Vent distant from the origin of the ventrals half the length 

 of the head. Pectorals small, low on the side. Caudal deeply notched. 



Scales of medium size, thin, deciduous; those of the lateral line large, 

 convex or raised on the tube, which forms a rounded notch in the hinder 

 niarurin of each scale. 



