6 Sigurd Johnsen. 
starts in the middle of the side of the body below D, and continues 
in faint curves directly backwards to the caudal along the dorsal 
base of the side keel. 
Scales. The greater part of the scaly covering is gone; 
when the fish was taken out of the water, it was covered with a 
grey, filmy skin, (so the man said who caught it) but this was so 
loose that it fell off when the fish began to flounder. On large 
spots on the back and on the head, the scaly covering is partly 
intact, and the skin here feels like plush to the touch. The scales are 
very small and are composed of a flat piece, which lies in the skin, 
and a larger free flat piece, between these two there is a connecting 
bit. The scales are so thickly set, that the upper parts almost touch 
each other. The under piece varies very little in size and shape, 
and the stem starts from the centre. The top piece varies in shape, 
there are more or less deep cuts on the 
edge, and there are very frequently several 
small holes; the stem is here generally 
speaking placed excentrically. (Text-fig. 2; 
Pl. Il, figs. 2—5). A- thin layer of "skin 
covers the stem and the top part of the 
scale. After maceration with caustic potash, 
itis only in the top pieces that there are any 
signs of structure; parallel to the outer 
Fig. 2. L. imperialis. edge and corresponding to its curvature, 
Scale, seen from below. a number of lines inside each other are 
The figure shows the rela- visible, but only from the underside; these 
tive size of the basal plate are formed by a succession of layers, one 
to the topplate. (Contour above the other, so that the edge is the 
of stem in dotted line). y 
X 55. thinnest part. (Pl. I, fig. 5.) 
The Fins: P 19, VP NG 
The pectoral has 19 rays, P, is quite short, P. very 
strong. The basal part is pressed quite flat at the front, and is on 
exactly the same level as the rays; inwards, on the contrary, fhe 
basal part is much curved and is reclined into a groove in the body. 
The fin can be closed down on the body and appears then to form 
a part of its surface, as there is a shallow depression on this part 
of the body; the ventral edge of this depression is very conspicuous 
for a length of about 7 cm.; from this point it gradually dwindles 
