ACANTHOPTERYGII. 303 



of a single barbel under the symphysis of the lower jaw, have 

 numerous ones under its branches. This genus has been 

 established and named pogonias by Count Lacepede. 



These fish are remarkable for their great size and for the 

 noise which they send forth, and which has gained them the 

 vulgar name of drum. Linnaeus received one from Garden, 

 and conferred on it the ancient name of chromis, precisely on 

 account of this noise; but he placed it among his labrus, from 

 what analogy it is difficult to divine, and makes no mention 

 of its barbies, probably because he received it only in a dried 

 state. Finally, he regarded it as identical with the guatu- 

 cupa of Marcgrave, which is an otolithus, and with the 

 drummer or fourth chromis of Brown, which is an umbrina. 



Various accounts are given concerning the nature of the 

 noise of these drums. According to Dr. Mitchill, it is when 

 they are taken out of the water that they send forth this noise; 

 but Schcepf, who speaks of the drum under the name of labrus 

 chromis, says that it is under the water that this noise is. dull 

 and hollow ; that several individuals assemble round the keel 

 of ships at anchor, and that then their noise is most sensible 

 and continuous. This account may seem extraordinary, and 

 yet it is perfectly conformable with what has been latterly re- 

 ported by an American traveller. 



This is Mr. John White, Lieutenant of the Navy of the 

 United States, in his Voyage to the Seas of China, published 

 in 1824. He relates, that being at the mouth of the river of 

 Cambodia, his** crew and himself were astonished by some 

 extraordinary sounds which were heard around the bottom of 

 their vessel. It was, says he, like a mixture of the base of 

 the organ, the sound of bells, the guttural cries of a large frog, 

 and the tones which imagination might attribute to an enor- 

 mous harp ; one might have said that the vessel trembled 

 with it. These noises increased, and finally formed an uni- 

 versal chorus over the entire length of the vessel and the two 



