.220 ACANTHOPTERYGIT. MACKEREL FANILY. 



northern latitudes. There it is most abundant; 

 thence it issues into the temperate regions ; although 

 it is only lately that it has been ascertained that it 

 wanders southwards as far as the Mediterranean. 

 The first notice and representation of this fish we 

 possess is that of Sibbald, in his Scotia Illustrata : 

 the specimen which afforded the materials was 

 taken in the Frith of Forth, near Queensferry ; the 

 figure is far from good, and the description very 

 short. Mr. Low, in his Natural History of Orkney, 

 alludes to a second notice, which is to be found in 

 Mr. Wallace's Description of Orkney : Mr. Wallace 

 also supplies a figure with his description, mention- 

 ing that one fish was captured in Sanda Bay in the 

 winter of 1682, and that several others had pre- 

 viously been obtained in the same locality ; the 

 subject of his description was about an ell in length. 

 Another specimen was taken near Leith in the year 

 1750, and formed the subject of a communication to 

 the Royal Society of London, which was, in course, 

 published in No. 495 of the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, with a figure. There happened to be in this 

 country, at the time, an African prince, who ima- 

 gined, or pretended, that he had long been familiar 

 with this fish in his native land, and who supplied 

 the information that it was called Opah by the 

 natives, and King-fish by their English visitors. 

 Thus the trivial names of this fish, which have been 

 preserved to the present day, were conferred by an 

 African ; and as no specimen has at any time been 



