ANTARCTIC SHORE FISHES. 289 



4, The Patagonian district is, with the exception of the 

 neighbourhood of the mouth of the Eio cle la Plata, almost 

 unknown. In that estuary occur Mustelus vulgaris, two Raja, 

 two Trygon, several Scisenoids, Faropsis signata and Fercophis 

 hrasilianus (two fishes peculiar to tliis coast), Frionotus punc- 

 tatus, Lmrtionema longijilis (a Gadoid), a Fseudorhomhus, two 

 Soles, Engraulis olidus, a Syngnathus, Conger vulgaris, and 

 Ophichthys ocellatus ; and if we notice the occurrence of a 

 Sen-anus and Caranx, of Aphritis and Finguipes, and of 

 two or three Clupea, we shall have enumerated all that is 

 known of this fauna. The fishes of the southern part, viz. 

 the coast of Patagonia proper, southwards to Magelhaen's 

 Straits, are unknown ; which is the more to be regretted, as 

 it is most probably the part in which the characteristic types 

 of this district are most developed. 



V. — Shore Fishes of the Antarctic Ocean. 



To this fauna we refer the shore fishes of the southern- 

 most extremity of South America, from 50° lat. S., with 

 Terra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, and those of Ker- 

 guelen's Land, with Prince Edward's Island. No fishes are 

 known from the other oceanic islands of these latitudes. 



In the Southern Hemisphere surface fishes do not extend 

 so far towards the Pole as in the Northern ; none are known 

 from beyond 60° lat. S., and the Antarctic Fauna, which is 

 analogous to the Arctic Fauna, inhabits coasts more than ten 

 degrees nearer to the equator. It is very probable that the 

 shores between 60° and the Antarctic circle are inhabited 

 by fishes sufficiently numerous to supply part of the means 

 of subsistence for the large Seals which pass there at least 

 some season of the year, but hitherto none have been ob- 

 tained by naturalists ; all that the present state of our know- 

 ledge justifies us in saying is, that the general character of 



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