300 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathybial Fishes 
of the total, and just in excess of the greatest height of the 
body. The tail is rather abruptly constricted ; its greatest 
height, behind the vent, is about f that of the trunk, and 
behind this it rapidly diminishes. 
Snout faintly trihedral; its length is equal to the major 
diameter of the orbit and to the width of the flattened inter- 
orbital space at its middle, and all but \ of the length of the 
head. 
Nostrils very large, the anterior subtubular in appearance. 
Mouth quite inferior; the maxilla almost reaches the 
vertical through the middle of the orbit. Teeth in broad 
villiform bands in both jaws, and in the lower an inner row 
of moderately and in the upper an outer row of considerably 
enlarged, conical, acute teeth. 
Barbel about J as long as the eye. 
Gill-membranes broadly united, thick, coriaceous ; attach- 
ment of first branchial arch to opercle broad. 
Body and head, except the glosso-hyal region, covered 
with rather deciduous spinigerous scales ; those on the body 
uniformly large and deeply imbricating. There are five rows 
between the first dorsal fin and the lateral line. A scale from 
the dorsal half of the trunk is ^ of an inch high by £ of an 
inch broad, with a shallow, triangular, non-imbricate area 
bearing about twenty-eight close, parallel, longitudinal series 
of small, equal, close-set, semierect spinelets. 
First dorsal spine rudimentary ; the second slightly pro- 
longed, its front edge faintly crenulated in its basal, sharply 
serrated in its distal half. The interval between the first and 
second dorsal fins is equal to the length of the base of the 
first, or a little more than the length of the snout. The 
pectorals measure rather more than half the length of the 
head. Ventrals with the first ray slightly prolonged, reaching 
to the origin of the anal. 
Stomach siphonal ; intestine very long, much coiled. 
Fourteen or fifteen large long pyloric caeca. Liver large, 
both lobes almost equally developed. An air-bladder. 
Colours in the fresh state : — Chocolate,, with blackish fins ; 
oro-pharyngo-branchial membrane and parietal peritoneum 
black. 
One specimen — a female with gravid ovaries — measuring 
22 inches in length and weighing (after preservation in spirit) 
1^ pound. 
Station 104, 1000 fathoms. 
