48 RAMSAY H. TRAQUAIR’S 
on to the posterior margin of an elongated suborbital, while the shorter 
anterior-inferior one is in contact with the hinder margin of the maxilla. The 
maxilla forms posteriorly a rather broad somewhat rhombic-shaped plate, whose 
anterior angle passes into a narrow process extending on below the orbit. 
The mandible is small, straight, and slender; below it are seen a few branchio- 
stegal rays. Immediately in front of the anterior-superior margin of the pre- 
operculum, and touching the maxilla below, is a narrow, slightly curved sub 
orbital ; and again, in front of this, there is a circlet of narrow ossicles, whose 
number cannot be accurately ascertained, surrounding the entire orbit. The 
orbit is large, and is situated immediately behind the rounded snout, and above 
the anterior part of the maxilla. 
Like the bones of the cranial roof, those of the face are ornamented exter- 
nally with tortuous flattened rugee, except the mandible, which is marked with 
finer and nearly parallel ridges, running from behind forwards, with a slight 
obliquity towards the superior margin. 
No teeth are visible on either jaw. 
The bones of the shoulder girdle are constructed on the usual paleoniscoid 
type, and ornamented with flattened rugee, like those of the head. 
The scales of the body are arranged as usual in dorso-ventral bands, of 
which 34 may be counted between the shoulder girdle and the commencement 
of the lower lobe of the caudal fin. They are of moderate size, largest on the 
anterior part of the flank, smaller dorsally and posteriorly, and low and narrow 
on the belly. A row of especially large median imbricating scales runs 
along the back from the occiput to the commencement of the dorsal fin, 
These median scales are marked each with a few tolerably well-pronounced 
longitudinal ridges, as are also the imbricating V-scales of the upper caudal 
lobe, but the body scales in general are comparatively smooth, being marked 
only with faint ridges and furrows, proceeding somewhat diagonally from 
before backwards and downwards, which usually stop short before they arrive 
at the posterior margin of the scale ; in many specimens these striz are nearly 
entirely obsolete on the scales below the lateral line. There may also often be 
observed on the flank scales a number of very delicate vertical grooves close to 
and parallel with the anterior margin of the ganoid area. For the most part 
the posterior margins of all the scales are even and entire, denticulations belie 
only occasionally and indeed rarely visible. 
The pectoral fin is shown only in one specimen; it is small, and composed of: 
numerous delicate rays, which seem to be jointed for a considerable part of 
their length. No ventral is visible in any of the specimens. The dorsal is 
situated far back, so as to be nearly opposite the anal; both fins are short- 
based, triangular-acuminate in shape, and are composed of delicate, brilliantly 
ganoid and distantly articulated rays. The caudal is very heterocercal, deeply 
