Description of two new species of fishes, Ascelichthys rhodorus and Scytalina cerdale, from Neah Bay, Washington Territory

264 PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Dixon, Means, Marcliard, or Yancoiiver, except tliat Means mentions them casually as sardines, and says the Indians are as fond of them and make quite as much account of them as they do of salmon. They are found in countless myriads in the waters of Alaska Territory, but hith-erto no other use has been made of them in that Territory excejit as an article of food for the Indians. If some of the canneries of Alaska would try the exi)eriment and put them u]3 in oil similar to sardines, I predict that a lucrative trade would result. No regular statistics of the Eulachon fishery have ever been kept either in British Columbia or Alaska, and the foregoing meager account of a very imjiortant food-tish is all that I have been able to procure. DESCKffPTIOIV OF T'W' O NE^V SPECIES OF FISHES, ASCEIilCHTHYS RHOraORUS AlVU SCYTAILBIVA CEBS>AI>E, FKOM JVEAH BAY, IVASHINGTON TEKKITORY. By ©ATI© S. J©KD>AN asBd CHARI.ES M. GII.BEKT. Ascelichthys, genus nova. Family of Cottida'. Body rather robust, covered with naked skin. Head comparatively broad and depressed, covered with naked skin. Preopercle with a simple, strongly hooked spine. ViUiform teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatines. No slit behind fourth gill. Gill membranes broadly united, free from the isthmus. JSfo ventral fins. Spinous dorsal of low flexible spines. Other fins normally develoj)ed. This genus has the general appearance of Oligocottus, but is distinguished at once from all the known genera of the family by the absence of the ventral fins; hence the generic name from a^zsA^jr, without leg, and r/Ohz, tish. Ascelichthys rhodorus, sj). nov. Body rather plump, broad, and low anteriorly, nearly cylindrical mesially, becoming compressed behind. Head comparativelj^ broad and low, ovate, regularly narrowed forward, and rounded anteriorly. Eyes rather large, placed high, separated by a slightly concave interorbital space, narrower than the eye. Mouth rather large, nearly horizontal, the maxillary extending to opposite the posterior border of the eye. Lower jaw slightly shorter than upper. Lii)s rather full, the upper jaw protractile. Teeth small, in villiform bands on jaws, vomer, and i^ala-tines. The palatine bauds long and narrow. Pseudobrauchaj large. Gill-rakers almost obsolete. No slit behind the fourth gill. Branchios-tegals six. Gill-membranes broadly united, free from the isthmus. A low, fringed dermal flap above the posterior part of each eye. No other cirri anywhere, and no trace anywhere, on body or head, of dermal prickles or scales. No nasal spines. Nostrils both with short tubes, the anterior the longer. Suborbital stay very slender, barely reaching the i)reopercle. Preop-ercle with a rather short simi^le sx)ine, strongly hooked upwards and in-

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Description of two new species of fishes, Ascelichthys rhodorus and Scytalina cerdale, from Neah Bay, Washington Territory

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