A. M. REESE 
Owing, probably, to the fact that the fish could not be obtained 
until several hours after death, the material that was preserved 
for histological study was not well fixed, so that the finer his- 
tological details could not be made out. 
There is, of course, a considerable literature upon the lateral 
line system of sense organs, and several workers have published 
researches upon this system in the Chimseroids. Nothing, however, 
so far as I am aware, has been published upon the lateral line in 
the species under discussion. 
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CANALS 
It will be well to begin the discussion with a description of 
the distribution of the canals, since it is the superficial appearance 
that is, naturally, first noticed and used in taxonomy. 
The nomenclature adopted by Garman for the canals seems to 
be the simplest and most reasonable, and it will be used in this 
paper. The names used by Garman are, he says, with few excep- 
tions, those adopted by Agassiz. 
Except in one or two cases, on the ventral side of the head, the 
course of the canals is remarkably clear and definite, and in the 
numerous specimens examined but few variations in their position 
could be noticed. 
The system as a whole may be divided into the cephalic and 
the corporal canals (fig. 1) ; the former form a complicated system 
of lines extending over practically the entire head, while the latter 
consist of the single lateral canal on each side, that is such a 
universal characteristic of the group Pisces. In some elasmo- 
branchs the corporal system includes also a pleural canal, extend- 
ing out upon the pectoral fin ; this canal is not present in Chimsera. 
The lateral canal (fig. 1, Z, V) extends from its union with the oc- 
cipital and orbital, of the cephalic system, a short distance back 
of the eye, to the tip of the slender, tapering tail. A short distance 
from its anterior end, under the base of the spine of the anterior 
dorsal fin, it has a slight, but constant, upward bend. From this 
bend the canal extends caudad in a direction approximately 
parallel with the dorsal body line, and, in a full-grown fish, at an 
