1118 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
raie blanche ), is extremely probable, though so large specimens have 
never been found in Scandinavia as further south, nor has the juve- 
nile form ( Raja marginata ) referred by Moreau to the said species 
been met with in Scandinavian waters. Fries too was of this opinion, 
for he combined Montagu’s Raja oxyrhynchus and his own Raja 
Untea. In recent times (Dumeril®, Gunther, and Day) it has been 
proposed again to separate them; but the best descriptions (Moreau, 
1. c. and DSderlein 6 ) seem to favour the opinion that they are iden- 
tical, if we bear in mind the significance within the genus of the 
alterations of growth and the external differences of sex. 
Among the Sharp-nosed Skate, which were certainly 
not few in number, brought home by the fishermen of 
Bohusliin from the deep-sea fisher)’ in the North Sea, 
Fig. 321. Sharp-nosed Skate ( Raja lintea ), Q, Ys na t- si ze - The 
Cattegat, July, 1837. B. Fries. From a stuffed specimen, a, an 
aculeus, after W. von Wright. 
Fries never came across specimens more than 9 or 10 
dm. long; but none of the females he opened had fully 
developed ovaries, nor had the males full-sized ptery- 
gopodiaY “It is thus probable,” wrote Fries, “that 
these Skate attain a greater length before they are ca- 
pable of reproduction, which is borne out by Pennant’s 
statement that a specimen found by him measured 7 
feet (21 V 3 dm.).” 
In form of body the Sharp-nosed Skate most nearly 
resembles the preceding species. The anterior lateral 
margins of the disk, however, show hardly so deep un- 
dulation or concavity^, the most prominent side-margin 
of the head approaching close to the line from the tip 
of the snout to that of either pectoral fin. The ventral 
tins too are shorter, more truncate at the tip, rectilinear; 
their length from the sacral prominence being contained 
3V2 times in the entire length of the tail. The two 
dorsal fins on the tail are closely juxtaposited, though 
sometimes without being confluent at the base, and the 
posterior is set so far back that the upper fin-margin 
projects beyond the tip of the tail, which is finless, 
save for a lobe formed by an incision in the hind mar- 
gin of the second dorsal fin. 
The length of the head in a female 9 dm. long 
O C> 
measures nearly 1 / 4 of that of the body or 9 / 5 of the 
greatest breadth of the disk. The interorbital width 
(the least breadth of the cranial forehead) is V 4 of the 
length of the snout to the anterior margin of the eyes. 
The diameter of the transversely set spiracles is much 
less (V5, according to Krgyer) than the longitudinal 
diameter of the eyes, which measures, according to Krd- 
yer, % °f Fie interorbital width. The mouth is not so 
broad as in the Shagreen Skate, and the dentition too 
is feebler. The form of the teeth is not very charac- 
teristic. It almost exactly resembles that of the common 
Skate, with the exception that every tooth is compara- 
tively smaller both in the area of the basal disk and the 
length of the cusp, and that the number of longitudinal 
rows is somewhat less, in the above-mentioned female 
45 Y The internasal width is much greater than the 
least interorbital width (150 — 175 % thereof), but at 
most somewhat less than half the distance between each 
nostril and the tip of the snout. 
The Sharp-nosed Skate has the smoothest skin of 
all the Scandinavian speciesY The ventral side is per- 
a Hist. Nat. Poiss. (su. a Buff.), tom. I, p. 564, note. 
b Man. Ittiol , Medit., fasc. Ill, p. 165. 
c In the male 1,125 nun. long and with pterygopodia 190 mm. in length described by Malm ( Gbgs , Boh. Fna ), these organs had not 
attained their full development, though nearly so. The largest female mentioned by Malm was nearly 12 dm. long. According to Doderlein 
the Mediterranean Raja bramante grows to a length of more than 2 m. According to Day the White Skate of English waters sometimes 
weighs nearly 500 lbs. 
d In this respect the descriptions and figures of the present species vary considerably. According to KrOyer the tip of the snout in 
a male is “strongly prolongated from the disk and of a considerable length.” 
' In a male Kr0yer counted 48. 
f Young specimens of the common Skate, however, are sometimes equally smooth. 
