Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/547

Rh expect to find such a fish as the chimera (Fig. 9) an animal whose general appearance, it is true, is somewhat shark-like, but which, if possible, is more strange and monstrous than any of the sharks or



rays? This curious arctic fish, which attains the length of four feet, is not only exceedingly remarkable in its general appearance, but it is especially remarkable in its structure having no upper jaw, the four



upper teeth being supported on the front of the skull, and only two teeth in the lower jaw, and having no backbone, this important part being represented only by the most rudimentary structure, such as



exists in the ordinary embryonic vertebrate, and which is known under the name of chorda dorsalis.