148 
ARCTIC CHIMJERA. 
place where the lateral lines of each side join each other. 
The second is very narrow and short. The ventral fins enclose 
the orifice of the vent, and, like the pectorals, are united to 
a fleshy base. Its month is small, and each jaw is supplied 
with two long plates with cutting edges, having furrows that 
cause them to resemble distinct incisor teeth. In the palate 
also are two flat and triangular teeth. Besides the crest which 
stands in front of the head, near the snout of the male fish, 
there are before the ventral fins two organs, which are in 
some degree like small feet, and have nails, but their use 
is the same as that of the claspers in the Sharks and Skates. 
It is only at the time of depositing its eggs that this fish 
comes into shallow water, and it is then seen only at night, 
for the brightness of sunshine appears to dazzle its eyes. Its 
ordinary food is crabs and shell-fish, but it also feeds eagerly 
on herrings, and probably also on other fish. 
We add a short description from Dr. Fleming, as referred 
to at the beginning of this article, of an example sent to him 
from the Orkney Islands; the more especially as it shews some 
difierence from that of Lacepede: — The length nearly three 
feet; body compressed. Head blunt; the snout sub-ascending 
and blunt. A narrow crenulated grinder on each side in the 
lower jaw, and a broad tubercular one corresponding above. 
Nostrils immediately above the upper lip, contiguous, each 
with a cartilaginous complicated valve. Branchial openings in 
front of the pectorals, (and it appears from some observers 
that the marks of the five internal channels are visible on the 
surface, although the outlets of the gills is single on each 
side.) Eyes large, lateral. The lateral line connected with 
numerous waved anastomosing grooves on the cheeks and face 
On the crown in front of the eyes a thin osseous plate, bent 
forwards, with a spinous disk at the extremity on the lower 
side. The first dorsal fin above the pectorals, narrow, with a 
strong spine along the anteal edge. The second dorsal arises 
immediately behind the first, is narrow, and is continued to 
the caudal one, where it terminates suddenly. The pectorals 
are large and sub-triangular; ventrals rounded, in front of 
each a broad recurved osseous plate, with recurved spines on 
the ventral edge. Claspers pedunculated, divided into three 
linear segments; the anteal one simple, the retral ones having 
