POGONIAS CROMIS. 115 



ical portion, and cross concentric and parallel lines ; between these diverging lines 

 are others that are shorter ; they are closely adherent. The lateral line is nearly 

 concurrent Avith the outline of the back, and its scales are smaller than those of the 

 body, and deeply emarginate behind ; each has a tube beginning about its anterior 

 third, and subdividing behind. 



Colour. The body is dull silvery, or lead colour, more or less bright, and often 

 •with a coppery tint ; sometimes the body above is bluish-black, or very rarely 

 there are obscure dusky bars ; the barbels are always white ; the membrane of the 

 dorsal fin is dusky-olive, with numerous minute dots, and here and there lighter 

 shades of dirty white ; the pectoral is dirty white, with numerous dusky dots, espe- 

 cially on its membrane, which gives the whole a bluish-black tint, with a dusky 

 blotch at its base ; the anal is dusky, relieved with clouded white. 



Dimensions. The head is one fourth the entire length of the animal ; its 

 greatest elevation without the dorsal fin is equal to nearly one head and a quarter ; 

 total length, four feet. 



Splanchnology. The liver is very large, and in colour like that of the ox ; its transverse portion is 

 thin in the middle, but is thicker on the sides, and is again contracted at its place of union with the 

 'lobes; the left lobe is shorter, or about half as long as the right, and is partially subdivided above, 

 one portion going to the hypochondrium and the other to a depression between the first and second 

 ribs ; the right lobe is larger, and ertciius three fourths the length of the abdominal cavity, and is 

 greatly contracted behind the gall-bladder ; its inferior border is sharp, and its intercostal and hypo- 

 chondriac portions are mo.e developed than those of the left lobe. The gall-bladder is large, ob- 

 long, sub-pyriform, with thin walls, and is partially lodged in a fossa on the left face of the right 

 lobe. The cesophagjs is large, with numerous folds on its inner face, and strong, longitudinal 

 muscular fibres without. The stomach is not much broader than the oesophagus; it is elongated, 

 sub-cylindrical, ra'.her pointed behind, and extends about two thirds the length of the abdomen ; it 

 is folded within, find has its longitudinal fibres well developed ; the pyloric branch is broad, but ex- 

 ceedingly short, and begins near the cardia ; there is an evident pyloric contraction, and seven or 

 eight finger-like coscal appendages, all nearly of the same calibre, but varying somewhat in length. 

 The smnll intestine appears at first sight larger than the undistended stomach, but with thinner 

 walls ; it graduahy becomes smaller, and runs backwards, with numerous short convolutions, for 



