92 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



of the length, is narrow, and tapers to a ridge before the eyes, the tip of the upper jaw being, 

 however, rounded. When the mouth is closed, the under jaw ascends considerably, and the 

 commissure of the lips is at the extremity of the head ; but when the under jaw is depressed 

 it is longer than the upper one. The lips fold back on the mandibles. The operculum is 

 heart-shaped, its apex having a membranous margin which forms the acute tip of the gill- 

 cover. Gill-membranes united under the isthmus forming a transverse loose flap. A row of 

 pores runs along each limb of the lower jaw, round the orbits, up the preoperculum, and 

 across the nape. 



Teeth — short, erect, and acute merely from their slenderness, disposed in a single row on 

 the sides of the jaws, but aggregated anteriorly into two rows on the lower jaw, and into three 

 in the upper one. There is also a transverse, two-rowed cluster of rather smaller teeth on 

 the vomer, but the palate -bones are smooth. 



Scales — minute, not tiled, and in most places scarcely touching, enveloped in the mucus 

 which exudes from the skin. Lateral line straight and nearer to the belly than to the back. 



Fins.— Br. 5—5; D. 78/; A. 2/43; P. 12; V. 1/1 , C. 20. 



The dorsal fin commences opposite to the tip of the gill-cover, and extends to the caudal, 

 to which it is united by membrane : it is about two lines high throughout ; its rays are all 

 spinous and scarcely flexible, with their acute points protruding beyond the membrane. Mr. 

 Yarrell reckons from seventy-six to eighty dorsal rays in the English Gunnelle ; but Fabricius 

 enumerates eighty-eight, which is almost the only discrepancy betwixt his description and 

 our fish. The pectorals have an acutely lanceolate outline, and are attached opposite to the 

 first dorsal spine. The ventrals are very small, and contain one conspicuous spine, with a 

 minute branching ray imbedded in the membrane. They are situated a little before the pec- 

 torals. The anal commences close to the anus : its two anterior rays are spinous * and shorter 

 than the others, which are forked and as long as the dorsal spines : the membrane of the anal 

 unites with the cuneiform caudal, which is rounded at the end. 



Colour. — Fabricius gives the following account of the Spotted Gunelle of Greenland. The 

 body is greyish-yellow, with pale yellowish marks on the sides before the anus, and whitish 

 ones behind : there are also twelve white marks with black centres upon the base of the dor- 

 sal fin, and as many totally white ones of a smaller size. The fins are yellowish, the anal and 

 forepart of the dorsal being tawny ; a black stripe crosses the gill-covers and crown of the 

 head; there is another between the eyes; two white stripes alternate with these; and the 

 throat is white. Mr. Yarrell says, " The uniform dark colour of my American specimen 

 obscures every trace of spots. In the British fish, the black spots of the dorsal fin are partly 

 encircled with a white line; but these markings do not occur on the anal fin, which rather 

 partakes of the mottled alternate dark and light brown of the body." 



* One of Mr. Yarrell's English specimens has two minute spines imbedded in the membrane behind the two ordinary 

 ones at the commencement of the fin. Fabricius enumerates six gill-rays; the Labrador fish appears to me to contain 

 five in each membrane ; while Mr. Yarrell says there is " nothing deserving the name of branchiostegous rays beyond four, 

 in either the American or British specimens." — Fabricius's words are: — " Membrana branchiostrga, sex quidem radios habet, 

 duos inferiores minutissimos, tamen et facile pretereundvs." 





