ICHTHYOLOGY. 



331 



Geographi- will be discovered to be inhabitants of the North Pacific also. 



cal Distri- Chirus has been found only in the North Pacific, but as low 

 bution. (lo,vn as California, and more abundantly in Hehring's Sea. 



^*^"v^~^ One large portion of the ocean, including the Sand- 

 wich Islands and the more southern Chinese seas, the In- 

 dian Ocean, Red Sea, and Polynesia, down to the northern 

 and eastern coasts of Australia, forms an almost unitbrm 

 ichthyic district, fi-om the general diffusion throughout it of 

 a great majority of the species that exist within its limits — 

 though there are many local littoral species within its 

 bounds. The Sconiberoid skimmers of the surface are 

 nearly the same in all parts of this wide sea. As we ap- 

 proach its confines, N. and S., there is a gradual in- 

 termingling of the forms belonging to the higher latitudes 

 on each side ; and on removing still farther fi'om the equa- 

 tor, we find the seas of Kerguelen's Land, South Shetland, 

 and Cape Horn showing as much identity of species as 

 those of Norway, Spitzbergen, and Greenland ; the Noto- 

 thenicB, however, and other predominant forms in the Ant- 

 arctic seas being dissimilar to the Arctic ones. In fact, 

 there is a greater generic dissimilarity between the extreme 

 Arctic and Antarctic fish than we observe between the fish 

 of the British Channel and the antipodal siJecies. A Noto- 

 thenia, we may add, is one of the most southern fish, having 

 been fo\md to the amount of 28 lbs. in the stomach of a 

 ' seal, in S. Lat. 66., on Sir James C. Ross's voyage ; and an 

 Ophidium was found by the same distinguished navigator 

 to the N. of Spitzbergen. Both seek shelter from the 

 seals in crevices of the ice. 



With respect to fresh-water fish, the common Salmon, 

 as we have more than once mentioned, is identical on both 

 sides of the North Atlantic down to the 4 1st parallel, but 

 does not occur in Behring's Sea ; and we are not aware of 

 any other species of Sulnto or Trutta being common to the 

 Old and New Worlds, although the family is even more 

 abundant both in individual numbers and in variety of spe- 

 cific forms than in Europe or Asia. Sturgeons, another 

 family of fi-esh-water fishes, containing anadromous raem- 



bution. 



bers, have a less high northern range than the Salmon, Geographi- 

 not being found in rivers that fall into the Icy or Arctic *=*' Distri- 

 American seas, but existing abundantly in most of the great 

 rivers of Siberia and North America that flow southwards, 

 or laterally, into the Black Sea, North Atlantic, or Northern 

 Pacific. The genus exists in China, but we have seen 

 none from the southern hemisphere. This leads us to ob- 

 serve, that no living Ganoid fish has as yet been detected 

 in the southern hemispliere. The Pharyngohrmichii are 

 confined as natives to India and the Cape of Good Hope, 

 though one or two species have been transported to 

 Cayenne, and thrive there. Some of the remarkable 

 genera that occur in the Nile exist also in the Gambia 

 and Niger, though, as far as we know, not the same species ; 

 and there is a similar likeness between the marine fish of 

 Western Africa and those of the Red Sea, extending in 

 one or two instances even to species. The Siluroids have 

 their headquarters in India and the southern seas, the 

 species being comparatively few in Europe and North 

 America. There are many in South America ; and the 

 Goniodonts are exclusively natives of that country. 



Tliere are other facts connected with this subject, some of 

 which we shall simply mention without dwelling on, such as 

 the influence of the Gulf Stream and other oceanic currents, 

 in bringing fish that are natives of the warmer districts of 

 the ocean into the higher latitudes. A drift tree or a spar 

 is seldom met with at sea without its attendant fish, espe- 

 cially if it has been long enough afloat to be covered with 

 fuci and barnacles. It would appear as if these fish stuck 

 by it in all its wanderings, from their unwillingness to quit 

 it, even when approached by a boat. And all mariners are 

 familiar with the fact of certain fish following a ship for 

 weeks together, until it has entered the colder latitudes. 

 The beautiful Naucrates, or Pilot-fish, has in this way been 

 brought to the Cornish shores, and we have known the 

 Echeneis to attach itself in considerable numbers to a ship's 

 bottom in the Bight of Benin, and to continue there until the 

 Azores were passed on the homeward voyage, (j. R — n.*) 



* The accomplished naturalist and excellent man, James Wilson, by whom the first edition of this article was penned in 1835, was pre- 

 paring to revise his work when death put an end to all his labours, and the task which he would have accomplished so well was entrusted 

 to another. During the last twenty years Ichthyology has gained so many new facts that it became necessary to write the whole over 

 again ; but such passages of the original treatise as were suitable have been interpolated in the text. 



Note. — At page 236 we have mentioned the Meletta venenosa as being occasionally a poisonous fish ; and at page 312 the Tetraodons 

 are noticed as having generally a bad reputation on the same account. Not without reason, indeed, since the small liver of a single 

 Tetraodon was the cause of two deaths at the Cape of Good Hope. The subject is one of much interest both to seafaring men and to 

 physiologists ; and we gladly avail ourselves of a little spare room on this page to insert a few of the details given by Dr Julius Hell- 

 muth, surgeon of the Dutch brig of war, and Mr Hugh Jameson, surgeon of the royal navy, who witnessed the fatal occurrence. 



" J. Kleinhaus, boatswain's mate, thirty-two years of age, and J. Hansen, purser's steward, forty-three years of age, had partaken at 

 dinner-time (noon), in addition to the usual ship's fare, of the liver of a fish. Within ten minutes I was called to render assistance to 

 both, and observed the following symptoms : — J. Kleinhaus could not raise himself witliout the greatest exertion, his face was somewhat 

 flushed, his eyes glistening, and pupils rather contracted ; the mouth was open, the muscles of the pharynx spasmodically contracted ; 

 the lips tumid and somewhat blue ; the forehead covered with perspiration, and the pulse quick, small, and intermittent. The patient 

 was in great distress but still conscious. He complained, but with great diiHculty, of pain from constriction of the fauces and gullet, 

 together with great uneasiness in the region of the stomach, and had an inclination to vomit. An emetic was administered, but he could 

 scarcely swallow it, and he almost immediately became paralytic ; his eyes were fixed in one direction, his lips became livid, and his 

 pulse failing, he expired scarcely seventeen miuutes after eating of the liver of the fish. There was no full vomiting during the rapid 

 action of the poison, the emetic having produced no effect. The other patient vomited thrice, the first time before taking an emetic 

 which was given to him, followed by abundance of warm water, which caused a repetition of the vomiting, after which he said that he 

 was easier, but in a few moments a single convulsive movement in the arms ensued, the livid tongue was protruded from the mouth, 

 and he expired about one minute later than his messmate. Mr Jameson did not reach the Dutch vessel till forty-five minutes after 

 twelve, before which time both men had expired. He found their faces collapsed, pallid, and covered with cold moisture, the lips livid, 

 pupils of the eyes moderately dilated, the joints still flexible, and the limbs relaxed. On examining the bodies next day the stomachs 

 were observed to be moderately distended witli pultaceous food, nearly wholly reduced to the state of chyme, some of which had passed 

 the pylorus. None of the poisonous fish could be distinguished among this comminuted mass. The inside of the stomach round the 

 cardiac orifice was of a deep purple colour, and minute ramifications of the vessels extended along the smaller arch, and to the eminence 

 at the beginning of the greater arch. The vascularity was not perhaps greater than it v/ould have been in a healthy stomach during 

 the first process of digestion, but it was rendered more conspicuous by the dark colour of the blood. In the right ventricle of the heart 

 there was a fibrinous clot and a small quantity of fluid blood ; the left ventricle was moderately distended with dark fluid blood; the 

 muscular tissue of the heart was natural, and the muscles of the body generally were florid and healthy in appearance. The spotted 

 Tetraodon measured from 6 to 8 inches, and it was the liver only, not exceeding 4 drams in weight, that was eaten by the men." 



