1772— V^oyage on Califoniie pour I'observation <lii pa«snge do VilniiHsur 1»' disque dn 

 suleil, le :{ jiiin 17GU; contenant les observatioiiH de cc pht^nomeno et la dis- 

 ciii»t:oii historique do la route do raiit«Mir ii travors Ic Mexicpie. Par fon M. 

 Chappe d'Auteroche, . . . Rddigd et publit^ par M. do Cassini lils . . . 

 A i'aiis: clicz (Jliarlea-Autoino Jombcrt. MDCCLXXII. [4'=, half-title, 

 title, 170 [2] pp., plan, and "J pi. — 8abiu.] 



[Trnnslnti'd as follows:—] 

 A Voyage to California, to observe tbe Transit of Venns. By Mens. Cbappe 

 d'Auteroche. With an historical description of the authors route 

 through Mexico, and the natural history of that province. Also, a voyage 

 to Newfoundland and Sallee, tu make experiments on Mr. Le Roy's time 

 keepers. By Monsieur do Cassini. London: i)rintedfor Edward and Charles 

 Dilly, In The Poultry. MDCCLXXVIII. \_t^, 4 p. 1., 31;', j.p., witii "plan 

 of City of Mexico ".] 



Extract of a letter from Mexico addressed to the Koyal Acaih'iny of Sci- 

 ences at Paris, by Don Joseph Anthony de Alzate y Ramyrez, now 

 a correspondent of the said academy, containing some curious particu- 

 lars relative to the natural history of the country adjacent to the City 

 of Mexico, pp. 77-105. 



[It is nndiMibteilly this work ihat is meant in the statement that bas so largely {jone tbo 

 round.1 of the periodical press, to the effect tb;it the Californiau viviparous fishes were ob- 

 served dnrinfi the voyage for the observation of the transit ofVenus to Lower California, 

 nU'J. A perusal of the accounts given, however, renders it evident that the fi-shes in qnes- 

 tion were not Embiotocids but rather Cjpriuodontids, probably of the genus Mollienesia. 

 The account by Don Alzate (pp. 89-91) is as follows: — 



'• I send you some viviparous scaly fishes, of which I had formerly given you an acconui. 

 What 1 have observed in them this year is—' If you press the belly with your lingers, yon 

 force out the fry before their time, and upon inspecting them through the microscope you 

 may discern the circulation of the blood, such as it is to be when the fish is grown up.' If 

 you throw these little fishes into water, Ihey will swim as well as if they h.id been long 

 accustomed to live in that element. The flns and tail of the males are larger and blacker 

 than those of the females, so that the sex is easily distinguished at first sight. These fish 

 have a singular manner of swimming ; the male and the female swim together on two par- 

 allel lines, the female alwaj's uppermost and the male undermost; they thus always keep 

 at a constant uniform distance from each other, and preserve a perfect parallelism. The 

 female never makes the least motion, either sideways or towards the bottom, but directly 

 the male does the same." 



To this account is added a foot-note (p. 90) containing the following additional informa- 

 tion:— 



" Don Alzate has sent those fishes preserved in spirits; their skin is covered with very 

 •mall .scales ; they vary in length from an inch to eighteen lines, and they are seldom above 

 five, six, or seven lines in the broadest pari. They have a fin on each side near the gills, 

 two small ones under the belly, a single one behind the anus, which lies between the fin 

 and the single one; the tail is not fuikcd ; lastly, this fish has a long fin on the back, n 

 little above tbe fin, whirh is under the belly. 



"We know of some viviparous fishes in our seas, such as loach, ic. most of these have 

 a smooth skin without any scales. The needle of Aristotle is viviparous, and yet covere<l 

 with broa<l and hard scales, I have caught .some that had young on<<s still in their womb. 

 Ah to these viviparous fishes, it is a particular ami new sort, and we are obliged to Don 

 Alz:ite for making us acquainted with it. It breeds in a lake of fresh water near the City 

 of Mexico." 



This is, so far as known, the earliest notice of the viviparity of CyJirinodontids. The 

 mode of consorting together (exaggerated in the account) is common to n number of rep- 

 resentatives of the family, and is alluded to by Prof. Agassiz in a name {Zygonectet, i. e. 

 swimming in ])airs) conferred on one of the genera of the family.] 



I^ON— Piscium Camt.schaticorutu ITcrpuk'] et [_Wachnja'\. Descriptiones et iconos 

 auctore ["W". G.] Tilesio. D. 2G Octobri 1808. Conventui eshib. die 2 Not. 

 1808. <M<''m. Acad. .Sei. Pelersb., v. 2, pp. 3:i5-375, 1810, viz:— 

 I. llt'xagraiumos Stelleri, Russis Torpuc dictns novum genus piscium 

 Camtschaticoruui. pp. 33r>-340, tab. 15. 



