334 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



more nearly parallel forward till within fifteen or twenty segments of tlie 

 head Avhere the convergence is much more rapid. Vent little behind the 

 middle of the total length. Head sinall, subconical, little deeper than wide, 

 tapering but slowly forward till near the snout, nearly one fourteenth of 

 the total length, crown convex. Snout subconical, blunt, one fourth as long 

 as the head, one and one third times as long as the eye. Eye lateral, large, 

 one sixth of the length of the head, equal to the width of the interorbital 

 space, three fourths as long as the snout. Mouth large, extending to or 

 bej'ond a vertical from the hind edge of the orbit. Teeth minute, appar- 

 ently conical, only visible under lenses of high power. Nostrils small ; 

 posterior smaller, in front of and near the middle of the eye ; anterior near 

 the end of the snout, in a tube at the lip. Gill opening small, narrower 

 than the eye, immediately in front of the pectoral base. Vent below the 

 seventy-ninth muscle-segment. 



Vertical fins continuous around the tail ; anal less than half of the entire 

 length ; caudal very short, forming a blunt angle at the end ; pectorals 

 small, twice as long as wide, as long as the snout. 



Translucent or transparent, without pigment. 



The peculiar structure seen in the tail is suggestive of an adult form 

 resembling Ophichthys, that is, with the tip exserted beyond the dorsal and 

 the anal and bearing no fin rays. In the present case the muscle bands 

 extend as far backward as the bases of dorsal and anal, while beyond them 

 between the rays of the fins a soft band in which there are no rays reaches 

 back to form a blunted angle behind the ends of the mentioned fins. 



station. Latitude. Longitude. Depth. Temperature. Bottom. 



3.366 5° 30' N. 86° 45' W. 10C7 fathoms 37° F. Yl. glob. Oz. 



Surface townet, Time, Feb. 27, 1891, S^ 4" p. m. 



Atopichthys cingulus sp. n. 



Plate LXl\[I. fii/s.£,2a. 



Pointed at head and tail, the angle at the former being a little the 

 sharper, greatly compressed, eight times as long as deep, the depth decreas- 

 ing rather abruptly near each extremity. The distance from snout to vent 

 is somewhat more than half the total length. Transverse muscle segments, 

 one hundred and thirty-one to one hundred and thirty-three. 



Head wider than body, length less than half the depth of the latter, 



