250 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



rotatory motion but no protrusion : their lower ends are with the labials which lie in the angle 

 of the mouth, thrust out a little by the extension of the jaws. The labials are about half as 

 long as the intermaxillaries, their posterior extremities pass a little beyond the centre of the 

 orbit. The lower jaw is strong, and there is a small cirrhus attached to the tip of the chin. 

 Teeth. — The intermaxillaries and lower jaw are armed with slender, hooked teeth, in even, 

 card-like, rather broad belts. A still broader belt covers the knob of the vomer and anterior 

 ends of the palate-bones. There are teeth of the same kind on the pharyngeal bones, and on 

 a double row of tuberculous rakers on each branchial arch. The tongue is obtuse, fleshy, and 

 smooth. Gill-covers rounded and edged with soft membrane ; the branchial aperture is 

 large, and its membrane, containing seven curved rays, is continuous with its fellow, forming 

 a flap which is loose behind : the rays are semi-cylindrical, being flat exteriorly. 



Scales small, roundish, and so deeply imbedded in a gelatinous epidermis as to be scarcely 

 perceptible in the recent fish. When examined with a lens, the concentric circles indicating 

 their growth are perceived to be very regular, but no radiating furrows can be seen. The 

 epidermis is covered with minute dark specks, most conspicuous though less crowded on the 

 lighter- coloured sides and belly. In the dried specimen scales are perceptible, either scat- 

 tered or crowded, on every part of the head, body, and fins, except the muzzle, lips, edges of 

 the orbits, and labials : on the forepart of the body the scales are nearly their own breadth 

 apart, but posteriorly they are more close, and on the tail they are in contact or even tiled : 

 they are also crowded on the cheeks, gill-covers, and caudal fin ; but very small and widely 

 scattered on the dorsal and anal fins, and scarcely perceptible on the gill-membrane. As the 

 scales dry they become depressed in the centre, or saucer-shaped. Lateral line marked by a 

 continuous, slender furrow, lined or bordered with minute scales : it is nearer to the back than 

 to the belly, and is slightly arched till it passes the first third of the anal fin, after which it 

 takes a straight course and is no longer discernible, when it comes within three inches of the 

 extremity of the tail. The anus is exactly midway between the snout and tip of the tail (ex- 

 cluding the fin). 



Fins.— £r. 7 * ; P. 16; V. 6; D. 12—74; A. 71 ; C. 50. 



The pectorals are unequally obovate and contain sixteen rays. The ventrals ox jugulars, 

 situated anteriorly to the pectorals, are soft, slender, and tapering to a point : the first of their 

 six rays is the strongest. The first dorsal contains six rays, the first of which is short, and 

 the last one very slender. The distance from the snout to the anus being divided into four 

 parts, the first dorsal occupies rather more than the anterior half of the fourth part. The 

 second dorsal, commencing about a quarter of an inch from the first, contains seventy-four 

 rays, the three or four first ones gradually increase in length, the margin of the rest of the fin 

 is even, and it is rounded off at its termination. The fin in general is nearly half an inch 

 lower than the first dorsal. The anal fin, commencing opposite to the ninth ray of the second 

 dorsal, and close to the anus, is of equal height throughout, except the two or three first rays, 

 which are short : it is rounded off at its termination like the second dorsal. The rays of the 



* Foster could find only six gill-rays in his specimen from Hudson's Bay. 



