FRESHWATER FISHES. 171 



of the Dead Sea, of the temperature of 91° Fahr ; also at Ain Feshkhah, 

 Ain Terabeh, Ain 'Sghir, and on the east side in various hot and sul- 

 phurous springs a little to the south of the mouth of the Callirrhoe, and 

 at the mouth of the Wady Mojib (Arnon). In most of these springs, 

 and the little lagoons round them, in which the fish live, the water is 

 almost as dense and as salt as that of the Dead Sea, which in many cases 

 during a gale overflows the lagoons. Yet the fish, which thrive and 

 multiply in the one, perish as soon as they are placed in a jar of the other. 

 In the little marshes full of Salicornia frtiticosa at the mouth of the Wady 

 Zuweirah, at the south-west corner of the Dead Sea, there are myriads of 

 the fry of this fish, about an inch long. I caught them by hundreds in 

 my handkerchief, yet, in trying to escape, none of them would ever 

 attempt to enter the sea, though I might be holding my improvised net 

 within a yard of it. Those we placed in a jar of the water of the salt 

 spring were well and active after a night's confinement ; those put into a 

 jar of the Dead Sea water perished in a few minutes. M. Lortet has 

 explained the cause, that though the amount of chloride of sodium is as 

 great or greater in the water of the salt spring than in that of the Dead 

 Sea, the amount of chloride of magnesium is much less. 



The larvee of the mosquitoes supply abundant food for the fish in these 

 salt springs. 



18. Cyprinodon cypris. (Heckel. Fische Syr., p. 140, pi. .\ix., f. i.) 



D. -, A. I, V. -. P. 14. L. lat. 26. L. transv. 8. 

 9' 8' 4 -+ 



This species was first described from the Tigris. I found it in the 

 Jordan, at Ain Feshkhah, by the Dead Sea, in the Jabbok, and in the 

 Fountain of Nablous. Dr. Lortet also collected it at the pilgrims' bathing 

 place in the Jordan, in the Wady Kelt, and in the Damascus lakes. 



19. Cyprinodon mento. (Heckel in Russegger Reis. i., p. 10S9, 

 pi. 6, f. 4.) 



D. 12, A. II, V. 6. L. lat. 27. L. transv. f. 



This fish was described from Mosul, on the Tigris. I found it in the 

 little stream by Amman (Rabbath Ammon) which flows eastward and is 

 lost in the desert. 



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