588 Labyrinthici and Holconoti 
As food-fishes they are rather inferior, the flesh being some- 
what watery and with little flavor. Many are dried by the 
Fig. 478.—White Surf-fish, Damalichthys argyrosomus (Girard). British Columbia 
Chinese. The two exceptions in distribution are Hysterocar- 
pus traskt, which lives exclusively in fresh waters, being con- 
fined to the lowlands of the Sacramento Basin, and Zalembius 
rosaceus, which descends to considerable depths in the sea. In 
Hysterocarpus the spinous dorsal is very greatly developed, 
Fig. 479.—Thick-lipped Surf-fish, Rhacochilus torotes Agassiz. Monterey, Cal. 
seventeen stout spines being present, the others having but | 
eight to eleven and these very slender. 
The details of structure vary greatly among the different | 
