— 131 — 
or anal fins ; no scales but a silver skin ; soft pectorals and a 
single soft dorsal from head to tail ; and within the frail 
vertebra; and filiforme rits. The eyes large and lateral ; the 
prceorbital suspended form the prccfrontal ; strialted and 
covering near the entire space between the orbit and the 
jaws: prceoperculum subcrescentic ; operculum and iutero- 
perculum with a thin fringed flap. All these are leading 
features of the Trichiuridoe from the best authorities — but 
strange to say, here the resemblance ceases — and the form of 
the head, and the wide extended jaws armed with numerous 
and powerful teeth, arc as wided removed from this first as 
it is possible to be. I can find nothing in Dr Gunther Cata- 
logue of Tishes or “ Fishes of Zanzibar ” or Cuivier at all 
approaching this species, either in Trickiurus or any of its 
numerous subgeneva. 
“The total length of this fish is 8 feet 6 inches from 
snout to tail. I have given the occurate measurement in the 
stretch as taken from the fresh fortunately because it had 
begun to change, for being a soft fish many of the more deli- 
cate parts have decomposed and thus considerably altered 
the original form, notably in the head. The body is fiat, with 
the exception of a little fullness at the shoulders, and tapers 
of a fleshy pomt at tail. The dorsal rises a little behind the 
centre of the eye, is composed of soft rays 174 in number, 
and extends to the tip of the tail. The caudal, anal and ven- 
tral fins are absent and unlike the “ hair tails ” there is no 
vestige of spines between the vent and tail. The pectorals 
are sligkty falcated with 13 soft rays on a very small base. 
‘'When 12 or 15 hours out of water there was no trace 
of colour on the fish except grey, dark above the line, paling 
