SKETCHES OF BRITISH ICHTHYOLOGY. 287 



Stream, amid scenes over which the name of Home has thrown its 

 undying spell, are never to be forgotten by the spirit of the man, 

 however stricken and subdued, in after-life. They arise upon the 

 memory, and beguile the imagination, with a soft and fascinating 

 splendour which the storms and vicissitudes of the world, as they 

 deepen and fluctuate around, may cloud or bury for awhile, but 

 never can extinguish. 



I have been induced to select for the subject of my first contribu- 

 tion, the present department of Ichthyology ; because such selection 

 will enable me to exhibit an Order of Fishes, and explain facts in 

 their structure and economy, which are alike curious and little 

 known, or imperfectly understood. And I am not without hope 

 that some friend of The Analyst, more favourably circumstanced 

 for observation, than myself, may take up the subject, and corrobo- 

 rate, and extend, the singular views developed respecting it, first by 

 Mr. Walcott, and subsequently by Mr. Yarrell. 



The two genera of British fishes which constitute the subject of 

 my present sketch, belong to the Fifth Order, Lophohranchiij and 

 Family, Sy7ignathidce, of the illustrious Cuvier. The term, Lopho^ 

 hranchii, compounded of two Greek substantives, literally signifies 

 tvft'gills :* and 1 cannot better illustrate the propriety of this de- 

 signation than by presenting an almost literal translation of Cuvier's 

 account of the characters of the Order, from page 36 of the second 

 volume of the Regne Animal : The fishes of this Order possess 

 perfect and free jaws ; but are, at once, distinguished by their 

 gills; which, instead of exhibiting the ordinary pectinated form,t 

 are separated into small round ttifts, disposed by pairs along the 

 gill-arches, — a structure of which no other fishes offer an example. 

 The gills are enclosed beneath a large opercule, or gill -cover, at- 

 tached, on all sides, by a membrane which leaves only a small orifice 

 for the issue of the water, and exhibits, in its substance, but few 

 vestiges of radii. These fishes are, moreover, distinguished by a 

 body invested throughout with indurated plates (ecussons) which 

 give it almost invariably an angular figure. They are generally 

 of small size, and almost destitute of flesh. Their intestine is of 

 equal calibre, without cceca i^ their swimming-bladder slender; but 

 proportionately large. 



* Xo(poSf a tuft, (i^ayx"^, the gills of fishes. 



•f Disposed like the teeth of a comb, pecten. 



X The Coeca of Fishes are intestinal appendices; which, varying in num- 

 ber, surround the pylorus, and open separately, or in groups, into the sto- 

 mach either at that part, or over the whole surface of the organ. They 

 secrete a fluid which is supposed to perform the office of the pancreatic juice 



