25R 
BANKS’S OAllFISH. 
numerous; diminishing in size on the whole until they ended 
in mere spots at some distance behind the vent. Hhis lower 
series seemed to correspond in some measure with the upper. 
Interspersed among the lines were a few irregular spots, 'ihe 
lateral line could be traced from behind the head, gradually 
passing downward near the ventral border, until it became close 
to it at the termination. Four longitudinal flattened ridges, 
rather more than an inch in breadth, passed on liom the head 
to the tail immediately above the lateral line; the uppermost, 
which is the longest, running forward almost to the eye. The 
surface of the skin was studded with numerous tubercles of bone, 
the smallest and most depressed being between the ridges and 
towards the dorsal and ventral borders; the most prominent 
being upon the ridges. On the ventral ridge were numerous 
irregular and prominent tubercles, slightly hooked backwards; 
and these tubercles were near the head replaced by irregular 
depressed hardenings of the skin. 
The head was small and short, measuring nine inches from 
the snout to the posterior border of the gill-cover. The outline 
of the lower jaw formed a wide arch, convex below, and 
stretching forward and upward to the mouth, which was placed 
in an elevated position, and opened upward and forward. The 
mouth small, nearly circular, and capable of being thrust forward 
two or three inches when the lower jaw was depressed. The 
profile of the head from the front of the cre.st was at first 
suddenly concave, the concavity facing forward and upward, 
and close behind the anterior end of the concave is the small 
nasal chamber. Beyond this concavity the premaxillary bones 
projected almost horizontally to the mouth. Ihe eye an inch 
and a half in diameter, and flat; the iris beautifully white. 
There were no teeth; the gill-covers large in proportion to the 
size of the head, with rvell-marked radiating lines. The dorsal 
fin extended from immediately behind the upper and posterior 
end of the curved frontal profile to within three inches of the 
tail. The anterior part of this fin was more prominent than 
the rest, and had twelve rays, wdiich were stated by the captors 
to have been twelve or fourteen inches in length when the fish 
was taken, and each to have been furnished with a membranous 
expansion on its posterior edge, increasing in width upward 
something like a peacock’s feather. The first ray was a rather 
