912 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
Genus ARGENTINA". 
Jaws toothless , but the palate armed in front ivitli a semicircular transverse row of small but pointed , recurved 
teeth , and the tongue furnished within its fleshy rim with a similar , but sparser row of somewhat larger teeth. 
Length of the maxillaries at most about 30 % (26 — 29 1 / 2 %) of that of the head reduced , and the length of the 
lower jaw at most about 50 % (43—4 9 1 j 2 %) of the same. Breadth of the snout at the articular knobs of the 
maxillaries perceptibly less than that of the interorbital space, which is more than 1 / i (26 — 29 %) of the length 
of the head. Base of the dorsal fin less than 8 % of the length of the body b , or than half the length of the 
head reduced. Pyloric appendages little or moderately developed. Scales large, for the most part curved , and 
armed with small spines. About 60 (58) — 70 scales in the lateral line, which is complete, and the scales of 
which are rendered more or less heart-shaped by an indentation at the hind margin. 
In the genus Argentina we find reminiscences both 
of the Smelts and the follotving family: a certain de- 
gree of transparency and cucumber-like smell (not 
quite absent, however, in the Gwyniads) and a com- 
paratively small 0 number of pyloric appendages point 
to the former; the stiff, but fragile tin-rays and the 
singular shape of the scales remind us of the latter. 
The last-mentioned peculiarity, which is also connected 
with the formation of the longitudinal ridges that 
appear on the sides of the body in Argentina, and are 
each covered by a row of curved scales indented at the 
hind margin (similar in this respect to those of the 
lateral line), ranges Argentina beside the extinct genus 
Osmeroides of the Cretaceous Period**, though in other 
respects the latter genus, with its numerous branchio- 
stegal rays and its strong, toothed jaw-bones, was 
more like the Salmons. In Argentina the jaws are 
comparatively weak, and there are no jaw-teeth, while 
the maxillaries are without supplementary (jugal) bones. 
But the most striking among the other characteristics 
of Argentina is the reduction of the rostral region 
proper, which both in the Salmons and the Gwyniads 
is sometimes so considerably elongated. Here, on the 
other hand, the ethmoidal region, with its lower cover- 
ing-bone, the vomer, is well-developed and compara- 
tively long; but the intermaxillaries are so greatly 
reduced that the head of the vomer, in almost the 
same manner as in the Eels, seems to form the firm 
anterior margin of the mouth. Lastly we will mention 
a characteristic which is indeed not quite absent in the 
Gwyniads, but is there much less developed, almost 
rudimentary. Outside (under) the pelvic bones and in 
front of the insertions of the pectoral fins, the large 
ventral scales form a flap, free behind, which covers a 
great part of the ventral fins when they are folded. 
Argentina belongs to the deep-sea fishes — as the 
large eyes indicate — but not to their most character- 
istic types. The young are frequently met with in the 
upper marine zones, and even ascend, according to 
Nilsson 0 , to the mouths of rivers. In the depths of 
the ocean the genus probably has an extensive range. 
It has longest been known, for a long time exclusively, 
from the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean ; but 
in 1878 it was found off the coast of New Zealand, and 
this in a form that can hardly be distinguished from 
one of the Atlantic species. Such a find as this most 
naturally suggests the possibility of discovering the spe- 
cies in intermediate localities as well; but it is remark- 
able that New Zealand is also the only region in the 
Southern Hemisphere which possesses among its auto- 
chthonic fresh-water fishes a member of the Salmon fa- 
mily (Retropinna Richardsonii ). 
Only two species of the genus Argentina are 
known with certainty * 6 7 . 
“ Artedi, Ichthyol. , Gen. Pise., p. 8. 
6 In a damaged specimen Brown-Goode and Bean found the length of the base of the dorsal fin to be 8'4 % of that of the body. 
c According to Nilsson, however, sometimes 20. 
d Agassiz, Reck. Poiss. Foss., tome V, lime Partie, p, 105, PI. 60 b. 
e Observationes lchthyologicce , p. 7; Skand. Fna , FisJc., p. 476. 
f Valenciennes’ Argentina leioglossa (without teeth on the tongue) from the Mediterranean off Algiers has already been identified by 
Giglioli with A. sphyrama, and Hutton’s Argentina elongata from New Zealand is based on a single young specimen in bad condition (see 
GtiNTHER, Deep Sea Fishes, Chall. Exped., p. 218). 
