FISH IN GENERAL. 43 



Where these reefs shelve into basins and creeks of less depth, 

 acanthopterygians of the sparoid, percoid, scienoid, and, 

 labroid families are detected, and further out in depths ex- 

 ceeding one hundred fathoms the large-eyed species of pria- 

 canthus, chatoessus, pomatomus, etelis, cheilodipterus, mega- 

 lops, &c. keep mostly deep below the surface, as indeed their 

 inferior powers of fin sufficiently indicate ; and above them, 

 pirabebes, prionotes, and pteroids, or flying gurnards, and 

 flying scorpions, rise out of the water, and escape from their 

 enemies much in the same manner as is practised by flying- 

 fish. 



Where shoaling waters have sandy bottoms, and form val- 

 leys, from sixty fathoms upwards, coffered species and ex- 

 pansile diodons are frequent ; and where banks of about forty 

 fathoms occur, particularly in temperate regions, many species 

 are met of those families whose heavy bony heads require 

 ventral fins beneath the throat, and indicate that their habi- 

 tual position in the deep is with the head downwards, grovel- 

 ling for bivalves ; here also we naturally find their particular 

 enemies and the deep water flat fish forming assemblages of 

 all the gadoid families, together with chimaeras, bogmari, 

 anarrhicas, hippoglossi, and the ground sharks, dog-fish, and 

 other squali ; who only forsake this kind of prey to follow the 

 columns of clupeas which in their seasons are seen advancing 

 above these plains, coming from the polar seas to fulfil their 

 destinies along the coasts and estuaries of more genial cli- 

 mates. From more sunny seas other columns come also to the 

 temperate latitudes, such as the genera of scomber and mugil; 

 but the former make a longer stay, and come closer in with the 

 shore, while the latter are fish of passage, accessible only for a 

 short time. In similar depths, and in less, but where the ground 

 is often found to be more broken, other species of caranx, with 

 centronotus, lepidolepes, trigla, centropomus, holocentrus, 

 scarus, bodianus, and teiragonurus, reside ; where the ground 



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