110 Dr. A. Giinther on new Fishes 



XV. — Ne7v Fishes from the Gaboon and Gold Coast. 

 By A. GuNTHER, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. 



[Plates II. & III.] 

 A MOST valuable collection of Fishes made by Mr. E-. B.N. Walker 

 in the Gaboon country has been recently secured by the Trustees 

 of the British Museum. Besides several species which were 

 formerly desiderata in this collection, the following prove to be 

 new and of great interest, partly because some of them are the 

 types of distinct groups, and partly because others prove that 

 the Fish-fauna of the Upper Nile is nothing but the most eastern 

 branch of that of Tropical West Africa. Repeatedly on former 

 occasions I have directed attention to the identity of these two 

 faunas ; and we may safely conclude that there is an uninterrupted 

 continuity of the fish-fauna from west to east, and that the species 

 known to be common to both extremities inhabit also the great 

 resei-voirs of water in the centre of the African continent. 



Mr. Walker had sent other collections to the Free Public 

 Museum of Liverpool ; and Mr. Moore was kind enough to lend 

 them to me for examination, adding another very valuable col- 

 lection made by H.T. Ussher, Esq., Deputy Assistant Commissary- 

 General, Lagos, on the Bossumprah River, Gold Coast. The 

 latter gentleman had previously sent a small collection to the 

 British Museum from the same locality. 



The Cyprinoids are not mentioned in this paper, as their 

 descriptions will be found in the forthcoming seventh volume of 

 the * Catalogue of Fishes.' 



Ctenopoma Petherici (Gthr.). 



Dorsal spines sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen, anal spines nine 

 or ten. This species, first discovered by Mr. Petherick in the 

 White Nile, occurs also in the Gaboon. 



Ctenopo7na multispine (Ptrs.). 



This species was first described from East-African specimens 

 with seventeen dorsal and ten anal spines. An example from 

 the Gaboon, with twenty dorsal and eleven anal spines, agrees 

 in every other respect with the East-African type, and must be 

 regarded as a variety only. 



Mastacembelus cryptacanthus (Gthr.). 



The number of dorsal spines varies between twenty-four and 

 thirty. A fine example, 16 inches long, has been sent to the 

 Liverpool Museum, from the Bossumprah River, by Mr. Ussher. 



Hemic hr amis fasciatus (Ptrs.) . 

 Guinea, Lagos (Mr. Ussher), Gaboon (Mr. Walker). 



