374 Labyrinthici and Holconoti 



As food-fishes they are rather inferior, the flesh being some- 

 what watery and with little flavor. Many are dried by the 



FIG. 309. White Surf-fish, Damalichthys argyrosomus (Girard). British Columbia 



Chinese. The two exceptions in distribution are Hysterocar- 

 pus traski, which lives exclusively in fresh waters, being con- 

 fined to the lowlands of the Sacramento Basin, and Zalembius 

 rosaceus, which descends to considerable depths in the sea. In 

 Hysterocarpus the spinous dorsal is very greatly developed, 



FIG. 310. Thick-lipped Surf-fish, Rhacochilus toxotes Agassiz. Monterey, Cal. 



seventeen stout spines being present, the others having but 

 eight to eleven and these very slender. 



The details of structure vary greatly among the different 



