VOL 

 1891 



^9^''''] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 123 



the most favorable fishino; places and possessed fair fishiug appliances, 

 and was ivally the only fisherman there who was at all well equipped 

 for his work. 



The water of the bay, at least near the city of Giiayraas, is very 

 warm. 



Althoufth Giiaymas is a considerable city, containing about ten 

 thousand inhabitants, there is no regular fish market. The reason for 

 this does not lie in the scarcity of fishes in the bay, for great numbers 

 of the best of food (ishes abound. 



The extremely warm climate renders the keeping of fish even for a 

 short time a matter of groat dilficulty, and the higli pri(!e of ice makes 

 its use impra(!ticable. Otherwise the Bay of (iuaymas might be made 

 to furnish an abundance of a choice article of food to the people along 

 the line of the Souora Railroad, a thing of which they certainly stand 

 in great need. 



During our visit in the month of July, the weather was so hot that 

 fishing in the daytime was nearly impossible, and nearly all of our 

 seining was done after night. This was of course a serious interference 

 to certain kinds of collettting. 



From inibiination gaine<l from the fishermen, we have no doubt that 

 many species visit these coasts in the winter months which are absent, 

 or at least are not found near shore, during the summer. Cynoscion 

 macdonaldi, recently described by Dr. Gilbert, is an example; it is a 

 very large fish common along the east coast of the gulf in winter, but 

 never seen there in the summer months. 



The colle(;tiou contains one hundred and ten species, of which twenty- 

 one appear to be new. Tiiree species and three genera had not before 

 been reported south of San Diego or Cerros Island ; forty-six species had 

 already been reported from this geographical region north of Mazatlan; 

 forty one species were not hitherto known from any point north of 

 Mazatlan; while but twenty-four species of the collection are known 

 from both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas. Of the 

 whole collection only eleven species are known from any point north 

 of the Gulf of California, while the remaining species, with the excep- 

 tion of those described by us as new, are known, in the main, along 

 the southern coasts of Mexico and Central America to South America. 



In the "Shore Fishes of Central America" (published in 18G9), Dr. 

 Giinther considered the evidence of the existence of a water way through 

 the Isthmus of Panama at a comparatively recent period, as shown by 

 the similarity of the fish faunse of the two coasts. There were known 

 to Dr. Giinther at that time one hundred and ninety-three species of 

 marine or brackish- water tishes, as found on th(; two coasts of Central 

 America, fifty-nine of which he regarded as common to both coasts. 

 This is 31 per cent, of the whole number, and he thought that further 

 exploration would increase this percentage He was thus led to con- 

 clude that there was, at no very remote period, a depression of the 



