SOME REMARKABLE FISHES. 



BY GRACEANNA LEWIS. 



We are all more or less familiar with the fishes of the 

 market, but the inland dweller reallj' has little conception of 

 the wondrous variet}- of the inhabitants of the seas, and the 

 almost countless hosts which they number. 



While new discoveries are almost yearly reported, ichthy- 

 ologists number at least 12,000 living species of fishes, in 

 addition to those now extinct. These 12,000 living species 

 are arranged in about 200 distinct families, each differing in a 

 certain degree from the other, but capable of being arranged 

 into larger groups of related families. 



In some of these the number of species is prodigious, the 

 group of the Cat Fishes, for instance, numbering about 1000 ; 

 whilst others, at one time including many, may at the present 

 be represented by only a single living species. 



An example of the latter kind is to be found in the 

 Albididac, or Lady Fishes, now abundant in the Gulf of Cal- 

 ifornia. These fishes are earliest known from the Cretaceous 

 Period, having been represented by different genera from that 

 time to the present day. They are related to the Tarpons and 

 Milk Fishes, and their young, as well as those of the Conger 

 (and some other) Eels, pass through a larval stage, in which 

 they are extremely slender, band shaped and transparent. 

 In this condition, when they are known as " Ghost Fishes," 

 they are frequently thrown on the beach in great masses by 

 the force of the waves. 



In the genus Elops, of the Tarpon family, the young pass 

 through a similar band shaped and transparent stage, as do 

 also those of the Chanoidac, or Milk Fishes. The latter are 

 found on most sandy shores of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, 

 and are very abundant in the Gulf of California and among 

 the Hawaiian Islands. It was one of the fishes cultivated in 

 the artificial fish ponds of the old kings of these islands, in 

 the time of their ascendancy. 



