17 



of the latter. The. eye has a circular contour; its 

 upper margin does, not reach to the upper profile of 

 the head. The posterior nostril lies immediately in 

 front of the anterior margin of the eye; the anterior 

 nostril is situated quite close to the posterior, the di- 

 stance between them being somewhat less than. half 

 the diameter of the eye. : The cleft of the mouth, is 

 somewhat oblique, tending upwards, and reaches about 

 as far back as the middle of the under margin of the 

 eye. The mandible is a trifle longer than the upper 

 jaw; its lower profile is almost straight and retreats with 

 a very prominent angle. There are teeth in both jaws. 



The pectoral fins are rudimentary. The vertical 

 fins are not much developed; the dorsal fin has its 

 origin immediately behind the vent. The caudal fin is 

 short and rounded. 



The vent is situated near the hinder end of the 

 body, the distance between it and the end of the tail 

 is contained about twenty times in the total length 

 of the body. 



A row of pigmentary spots, broken here and 

 there, runs the length . of the belly side from the 

 throat to the vent. A row of similar spots, very 

 small, sparsely placed, stretches along the back too. 

 Furthermore, pigmentary spots are to be found at the 

 base of the vertical fins; finally, similar rows run 

 along every myocomma beneath the lateral line, and 

 these are so close together that to the naked eye 

 they assume the form of one continuous dark line. 



The museum possesses a particularly large num- 

 ber of examples of this species, collected in the Gen- 



