BONES OF LOFHIUS PISCATORIUS — MORROW. 351 



"but serves for the support of the lower carpal, (which is also 

 much stronger than the upper), as well as to the fin rays of the 

 superior edge of the pectoral fin. The lower carpal at its lower 

 posterior half, at the point of j unction with the inferior extre- 

 mity of the upper carpal, has a thin posterior edge which con- 

 tinues to its distal extremity, and round which, beginning at the 

 junction with the upper carpal and continuing to its anterior 

 inferior edge, the twenty-seven rays of the (65) pectoral fin are 

 attached. 



80. The pubic bones which support the ventral fins are each 

 attached by a strong ligament to the clavicle (see 48) of its side 

 at its upper edge, about the point where the posterior cartilage 

 enters and is covered by the bone. The iliac portion, if it may 

 so be called, being a shaft (containing cartilage), somewhat flat- 

 tened at its anterior extremity, decreasing in size towards its 

 centre, from whence it widens out to form the ischio-pubic ele- 

 ments, on the outer edge of which the six fin rays are attached, 

 the posterior (82) five being soft rays, and the anterior ray (81) 

 a. comparatively short and strong spine, which has in most cases 

 a slight upward and outward curve. 



67, 68, 69. The vertebral column contains twenty-nine vertebra?. 

 The Atlas as already mentioned (under No. 8), supports the supra- 

 occipital ; the atlas, axis and the third and fourth centra are 

 wider on their superior and inferior surfaces, particularly the two 

 first named, than the remaining centra which gradually taper to 

 the caudal extremity. The vertebra? interlock on their inferior 

 edges b} T angular processes, while their superior anterior edges 

 are interlocked or supported by the neurapophyses of each 

 succeeding centrum overlapping the posterior edge of its 

 preceding neurapophyses, atid they gradually decrease in size 

 until about the nineteenth centrum, from this point being 

 nearly of the same size to the twenty-seventh. The twenty- 

 eighth and twent} 7 - ninth centra have their superior pro- 

 cesses very small, but the inferior interlocking processes are 

 of the normal size. The axis is the shortest centrum in the 

 column, being about half the length of the atlas, and not more 

 than half its height at its outer edges. The twenty-eighth cen- 



