27 



fig. 2. Nearer the head their height is relatively greater. In passing toward the tail their 

 proportionate length gradually increases. Those about midway between the anal and dorsal 

 fins are twice as long as high, and in the lobe of the tail the average proportion of length to 

 height is 3 to 1. 



The flank scales near the head are sculptured by striations, having a general longitudinal 

 direction, and numbering from about sixteen to eighteen or twenty. Under a lens they have 

 a decidedly rugose appearance. These striations cover the whole of the exposed part of the 

 scale, and extend forward in the over-lapped part to near the front margin, along which there 

 is a narrow smooth border. Most of the striations are continuous through the length of the 

 scale to its posterior margin, but a few are shorter and either merge into adjacent stria3 or are 

 interfered with by strife oblique to their course. In the lower part of the scale the striations 

 are generally parallel to the lower margin and curve up with it anteriorly. Those above assume 

 a inore or less oblique direction backward and downward. This difference in the direction of 

 the striation in the upper and lower parts of the scale is accentuated in some of the scales, where, 

 in the upper anterior half, the strige are parallel to the diagonal connecting the upper back with 

 the lower front angle of the scale, while those below the diagonal are parallel to the lower margin. 

 The striae are often more or less curved, resulting in slight variations in the general longitudinal 

 direction. The posterior margin is indented by the striae, the result being a conspicuous 

 serration of that part, the number of serrations depending on the number of striae at the back 

 margin. In the type specimen, and in some others in the collection of the Geological Survey, 

 the flank scales, as we pass backward toward the tail, gradually become smoother, the place of 

 the striations, as they disappear, being taken by a diminishing number of punctations, plate V, 

 fig. 3, but it is observed that the striations persist most near the anterior and posterior margins 

 of the scales. As the height of the scale is reduced there is a corresponding reduction in the 

 number of the posterior denticulations. When the tail is reached the scales have become almost 

 smooth and there are few denticulations. In the body prolongation of the tail the scales are quite 

 smooth, with entire margins. In some specimens in the collection, notably in the largest one 

 obtained in the summer of 1908, there is a very general persistence of the striations through- 

 out the length of the flank, even well on to the upper lobe of the tail. In different specimens 

 there are observed various degrees of development of the longitudinal striae of the scales in 

 the more posterior portions of the flank, and although at first it was suspected that more than 

 one species of Elonichthys was represented by the larger specimens from the Albert shales so 

 far obtained, it is now believed that they all belong to the single species E. brovmi, a species 

 having a scale ornamentation variable within limits. 



From about twelve to fifteen enlarged, imbricating, dorsal ridge scales extend from a short 

 distance back of the head to the dorsal fin. They are largest midway between the head and the 

 fin, at the highest point of the back. As, in most of the specimens, these scales are badly 

 crushed, and broken at the edges, it is difficult to obtain a clear outline of them, but the larger 

 anterior ones appear to be ovate, slightly longer than broad, and to attain a breadth, in some of 

 the specimens, of between 8 and 10 mm., not taking into account the transverse curve of the 

 scale. On approaching the dorsal fin they are not so broad, and are more pointed behind. They 

 are ornamented by wavy, frequently inosculating, longitudinal striae somewhat coarser than 



