366 



NORTHERN CHIMERA. 



tiliued into a long and slender filament : the head 

 is very large and thick, rising up in front into a 

 conical or pyramidal form ; and at some distance 

 beyond this, on the top of the head, in the male 

 fish, is a short upright process with a fringed or 

 subdivided tip, resembling a tuft : the mouth is 

 placed beneath, and is of moderate width, and fur- 

 nished in ea(;h jaw with a pair of broad, bony 

 laminae, notched at the margin into a resemblance 

 of numerous teeth; while in front, both above 

 and below, stand two large, subtriangular, flattish 

 cutting-teeth : the upper lip is divided above into 

 five clefts, and the front, from the mouth to the 

 eyes, is marked by transverse undulations and 

 pores, in such a manner as to resemble a kind of 

 embroidery: a line of this kind runs across the fore- 

 head, beneath the point or tip, and is continued in 

 a serpentine course into the lateral line, after send- 

 ing up a side-branch beyond the eyes, and back 

 again towards the nostril on each side : the inter- 

 vening space between these lines is filled up by 

 numerous, distinct pores : the lateral line is very 

 strongly marked, of a whitish colour with dark 

 edges, and runs strait from the place before-men- 

 tioned to the tip of the tail : the eyes are very 

 large, placed on each side the head, and are of a 

 greenish colour with silvery irides : in the living fish 

 they are said to shine with a phosphoric splendour : 

 the whole body is of a yellowish brown above the 

 lateral line, and of a bright silver-colour beneath it, 

 variegated, more particularly above the lateral line, 

 with numerous, irregular deep-brown or blackish 



