﻿196 GANGETic FISHES. Order V. 



rounded behind. Each of their membranes contains about five 

 rays. 



The back slopes upward from the head to the foremost fin, 

 between which organs there is a longitudinal furrow. The 

 belli/ is prominent. The shoulder-bones are not visible. The 

 lateral Ihies are straight and high. The vent is before the 

 middle. 



In the first dorsal fin the foremost ray is a prickle nearly 

 smooth on the edges, and the last is divided to the root. The 

 second fin is minute. Each pectoral fin has eleven rays, of 

 which the first is a prickle. The ventral fins are much smal- 

 ler, and each has six rays. The first four rays of the fin be- 

 hind the vent are undivided, the first being very short, and the 

 subsequent ones gradually longer. The lobes of the tail fin 

 are sharp. 



27th Species. — Pimelodus vacha. Plate XIX. Fig. 64. 



A Pimelodus with the tail fin divided into two equal lobes ; 

 with eight tendi'ils nearly about the length of the head ; with 

 the body nearly opaque and smooth, and green above ; with 

 fifty rays in tlie fin behind the vent ; and with seven in the 

 foremost of the back. 



The Vacha is common in all the larger fresh water rivers of 

 the Gangetic provinces, grows to about a foot in length, and 

 is an excellent fish for the table. It is long in proportion to 

 its breadth, a good deal compressed, slopes gradually toward 

 each extremity from the beginning of the first back fin, and is 

 nearly equally prominent above and below. The colour above 

 is green, with some black dots, which extend over the fin of 

 the back ; on the sides and below it is silvei\ 



The head is oval, sharp, rather narrow, and smooth. Two of 

 the tendrils proceed from the nostrils, two from the sides of the 



