80 



markets in San Francisco. It is universally known as tlie " Basse/' 

 and t'rom its excellent flavor brings always a high price. It attains 

 a length of five feet, and a weight of seventy pounds. 



In its great size, relative to the other Scicnoid fishes of this coast, 

 it resembles the Red Drum among th.e Scienoids of the Atlantic; 

 States, though in no way closely allied to it. It is taken in the bay 

 of San Francisco from October to March, though never in very 

 great numbers. It is found as far south at least as the coast of 

 Lower Califoniia ; a specimen in my possession having been brought 

 by Capt. Scammon from latitude twenty-seven degrees north, where 

 it was abundant. Its range to the north I have as yet no means of 

 determining. 



SeripJms pohtus, ^^^^.^^^ ^j^,^ 21. — Form elongated, com- 

 pressed ; greatest depth contained about four and half times in the 

 total length ; snout somewhat gibbous ; back of the head and nape 

 of the neck rising a little abruptly ; the back thence very slightly 

 arched to the origin of the second dorsal fin, wdience it descends 

 to the peduncle of the tail ; length of the head a little more th.an 

 one-fourth of the total length, lower jaw projecting slightly beyond 

 the upper ; gape of the mouth rather large, the tip of the maxillary 

 reaching nearly even with the post-erior border of the orbit ; teeth 

 distinct, sharp-pointed, not crowded, a double row on the front and 

 sides of the upper jaw, the outer row slightly the larger, a double 

 row in the front of the lower jaw, with a single row on the sides ; 

 no teeth on the vomer or palatiuea. 



Eye large, its longitudinal diameter being a very little less than 

 one-fourth of the length of the head, in a fish of seven inches; it 

 is distant rather more than its own diameter from the tip of the 

 upper jaw ; nostrils anterior to the upper portion of the eye, the 

 posterior one the larger, vertically elliptical. 



The cavernous nature of the bones of the head is well shown in 

 the suborhitab and the preoperculum ; with this exception, the oper- 

 cular pieces are smooth. A longitudinal crest or ridge extends 

 from the tip of the nasal bone backward, about even with the mid- 

 dle of the orbit. 



Branchial apertures large, continuous beneath the throat ; bran- 

 chial rays, six ; two piores beneath the sym})hysi3 of the lower jaw ; 

 no cirrhi. 



Scales covering the entire body and head, and extending on the 

 anal, caudal and second dorsal fins; those on the sides large, soft, 

 strongly ciliated, deeper than long; the skin, when the scales arc 

 removed, having a bright silvery satin lustre. 



Lateral line nearly straight. 



The distance of the origin of the first dorsal from the tip of the 



