BRAM01DS. 
75 
altogether. These covering scales (fin-covers), which 
are marked a in figure 21, are at first quite low at 
the beginning of the fin, then gradually increase in 
height up to the 20th scale, which with the next ten are 
the highest, then again diminish and end in one longer 
scale, more elongated in form, at the last ray in each 
fin. At first the interstices between the fin-covers are 
very narrow, and each of the scales is folded at the 
upper margin and overlaps the next one to it, but gra- 
dually these folds disappear, the margin becomes simple 
and thin and the groove proportionally wider. 
The dorsal fin begins in front of the insertion of 
the pectoral and the beginning of the anal, almost ver- 
tically above the posterior orbital margin or, as in the 
younger specimen, somewhat behind it. According to 
Lilljeborg it consists of from 51 to 53 rays“, the first 
9 being short and spinous and most of the others un- 
articulated and simple, but the posterior ones articulated 
and branched, the last of all doubly. The longest rays 
seem to have been situated just behind the spinous 
ones and to have been at least 8 / 5 of the greatest depth 
of the body in length; probably, however, these, too, 
ended in very fine points, united by an extremely thin, 
scaleless membrane. The anal fin is of the same form 
and structure as the dorsal, the number of pairs of 
fin-covers being about 40. Its longest ray, the 4th or 
5th, measures about 3 / 4 of the greatest depth of the 
body in the younger specimen. The pectoral fins are 
narrow, long and obliquely pointed: in both of the spe- 
cimens examined they are broken off short, but their 
length has been at least 3 / 5 of the greatest depth of 
the body. The ventral fins lie a little in front of the 
insertion of the pectoral. According to Lilljeborg 
they are covered above and below by a few elongated 
scales. The caudal fin is deeply forked and thickly 
covered with thin scales, which form rows on the 
membrane like those which in the genus Brama occur 
on all the vertical fins. 
Pterycombus brama is exceedingly rare and has 
been found in an adult state only on the west coast 
of Norway, from Finmark down to the most southern 
part in the neighbourhood of Egersund; and up to the 
present only 12 such finds have been recorded''. One 
specimen, caught in a salmon-net in Varanger Fjord 
in 4 feet of water, seems to prove that the species 
sometimes wanders into the shallower parts of the 
ocean; but it is really an inhabitant of the depths of the 
sea, from 100 fathoms to greater depths. The young 
specimen described by Lutken (1. c.) was taken out of 
the stomach of an Albicore (Or cy mis germo ), slightly 
north of the Equator, between Africa and South Ame- 
rica, in 8 ° N., 24 ° W., and thus shows that the spe- 
cies has a wide geographical range. 
(Fries, Smitt.) 
Genus BRAMA. 
The dorsal fin begins behind the insertion of the pectoral, the anal at about the middle of the body (excluding the 
caudal fin). The longest rays of these fins measure less than the greatest depth of the body. No fin-covers ; baton 
the membrane of all the vertical fins a row of similar scales along the bach of each ray. Eyes fairly large , the 
diameter, however , in full-grown specimens only about 1 / i of the length of the head. Teeth both on the palatine 
bones and the vomer , though the latter often disappear in old specimens and even in young ones are sometimes 
wanting. 
This genus, too, is one of the rarities of the Scan- 
dinavian Fauna, though far from being as rare as the 
preceding one. It is also much better known, for, in 
the Mediterranean and the Atlantic outside it, it is still 
less rare, and, we may say, is observed as often as 
deep-sea fishes in general can be. It has also been 
met with not only in the Atlantic but also in the Paci- 
fic and Indian Oceans. The form of the body and the 
other characters essentially correspond in many respects 
to those of the preceding genus. The relation between 
the two genera may be systematically expressed, in 
Nilsson’s words, “by the striking metamorphosis through 
which the oblong, linear scales, which in Brama cover 
the dorsal and anal fins, have sunk in Pterycombus to 
a The number of pairs of fin-covers in both the specimens mentioned above is 50 and each of them seems to belong to a separate ray. 
b Collett, N. Mag. Naturv., Bd. 29 (1884), p. 59. 
