SECTION II.

SOFT-FINNED FISHES.

SOFT-FINNED APODAL FISHES.

29. THE Murena or Eel. The body round and slender; the head terminating in a beak; the fin covering the gills with ten rays; the opening to the gills pipe-fashion, placed near the pectoral fins; the fins of the back, the anus, and the tail, united in

one.

30. The Gymnotus or Carapo. The body broadest on the back, like the blade of a knife; the head small; the fin covering the gills with five rays; the back without a fin; two beards or filaments from the upper lip; an inhabitant of Brasil.

31. The Anarchicas or Wolf-fish. The body roundish and slender; the head large and blunt; the fore-teeth above and below conical; the grinding teeth and those in the palate round; the fin covering the gill has six rays.

32. The Stromateus. The body oblong; the head small; the teeth moderately sharp; the fin covering the gills with five or six rays.

33. The Ammodytes or Launce. The body slender and roundish; the head terminated by a beak; the teeth of a hair-like fineness; the fin covering the gills with seven rays.

SOFT-FINNED JUGULAR FISHES.

34. The Lepadogaster. The body wedge-like; the head oblong, forwarder than the body, flattish, the beak resembling that of a duck; the pectoral fins dou

VOL. IV.-P

ble, two on each side; the ventral fins joined together; a kind of bony breast-plate between the pectoral fins; the fin covering the gills with five rays; the opening to the gills pipe-fashion.

35. The Gadus or Cod-fish. The body oblong; the head wedge-like; the fin covering the gills with seven rays; several back and anal fins.

36. The Pleuronectes. The body elliptical; the head small; both eyes on one side of the head; the fin covering the gills with from four to seven rays.

37. The Echineis or Sucking-fish. The body almost wedge-like, moderately round; the head broader than the body; the fin covering the gills with ten rays; an oval breast-plate, streaked in form of a ladder, toothed.

38. The Lipidopus or Garter-fish. The body sword-like; the head lengthened out; the fins covering the gills with seven rays; three scales only on the whole body; two in the place of the ventral fins; the third from that of the anus.

SOFT-FINNED ABDOMINAL FISH.

39. The Loricaria. The body crusted over; the head broad, with a beak; no teeth; the fin covering the gills with six rays.

- 40. The Atherina or Atherine. The body oblong; the head of a middling size; the lips indented; the fin covering the gills with six rays; the line on the sides resembling a silver band.

41. The Salmo or Salmon. The body oblong; the head a little sharp; the fin covering the gills from

four to ten rays; the last fin on the back without its correspondent muscle, fat.

42. The Fistularia. The body angular, in form of a spindle; the head pipe-fashion, with a beak; the fin covering the gills with seven rays; the under jaw covering the upper.

43. The Esox or Pike. The body round; the head with a beak; the under jaw pierced longitudinally with small holes; the fin covering the gills with from seven to twelve rays.

44. The Argentina or Argentine. The body a little round and slender; the head with a beak, broader than the body; the.fin covering the gills with eight rays; a spurious back fin.

45. The Clupea or Herring. The body a little oblong; the head with a small beak; the fin covering the gills with eight rays.

46. The Exocatus or Flying-fish. The body oblong; the head almost three-cornered; the fin covering the gills with ten rays; the pectoral fins placed high, and as long as the whole body; the back fin at the extremity of the back.

47. The Cyprinus or Carp. The body elongated, almost round; the head with a small beak; the hinder part of the bone covering the gills marked with a crescent; the fin covering the gills with three

rays.

48. The Cobitis or Loach. The body oblong; almost equally broad throughout; the head small, a little elongated; the eyes in the hinder part of the head; the fin covering the gills from four to six rays; the covers of the gills closed below.

49. The Amia or Bonito. The body round and slender; the head, forehead, and breast, without skin; the fin covering the gills with twelve rays; two beards from the nose.

50. The Mormyrus. The body oblong; the head

elongated; the fin covering the gills with a single ray; the opening to the gills is linear, and has no bone covering them.

Such is the system of M. Gouan; by reducing to which any fish that offers, we can know its rank, its affinities, and partly its anatomy, all which make a considerable part in its natural history. But, to show the use of this system still more apparently, suppose I meet with a fish the name to me unknown, of which I desire to know something more. The way is first to see whether it be a cartilaginous fish, which may be known by its wanting fins to open and shut the gills, which the cartilaginous kinds are wholly without. If I find that it has them, then it is a spinous fish; and, in order to know its kind, I examine its fins, whether they be prickly or soft: I find them soft; it is therefore to be ranked among the soft-finned fishes. I then examine its ventral or belly fins, and finding that the fish has them, I look for their situation, and find they lie nearer to the tail than the pectoral fins. By this I find the animal to be a soft finned abdominal fish. Then, to know which of the kinds of these fishes it is, I examine its figure and the shape of its head, I find the body rather oblong; the head with a small beak; the lower jaw like a saw; the fin covering the gills with eight rays. This animal must therefore be the herring or one of that family, such as the pilchard, the sprat, the shad, or the anchovy. To give another instance: Upon examining the fins of a fish to me unknown, I find them prickly; I then look for the situation of the ventral fins, I find them entirely wanting; this then must be a prickly-finned apodal fish. Of this kind there are but three; and by comparing the fish with the description, I find it either of the trichurus kind, the sword-fish, or the gilt-head. Upon examining also its internal structure, I shall find a very

great similitude between my fish and that placed at the head of the family.

CHAPTER II.

OF SPINOUS FISHES IN GENERAL.

HAVING given a method by which spinous fishes may be distinguished from each other, the history of each in particular might naturally be expected to follow; but such a distinct account of each would be very disgusting from the unavoidable uniformity of every description. The history of any one of this class very much resembles that of all the rest: they breathe air and water through the gills; they live by rapine, each devouring such animals as its mouth is capable of admitting; and they propagate, not by bringing forth their young alive, as in the cetaceous tribes, nor by distinct eggs, as in the generality of the cartilaginous tribes, but by spawn, or peas, as they are generally called, which they produce by hundreds of thousands.. These are the leading marks that run through their whole history, and which have so much swelled books with tiresome repetition.

It will be sufficient therefore to draw this numerous class into one point of view, and to mark how they differ from the former classes, and what they possess peculiarly striking, so as to distinguish them from each other. The first object that presents itself, and that by which they differ from all others, is the bones. These, when examined but slightly, appear to be entirely solid; yet when viewed more closely, every bone will be found hollow, and filled with a substance less rancid and oily than marrow.