2730 THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



above, to be devoured by the watchful sea birds, or picked up by the fortunate 

 fisherman. No satisfactory reason has as yet been assigned for this rash act, al- 

 though numerous theories have been propounded to account for it. One is that the 

 hapless fish is pursued by a shark or other enemy, and prefers uncertain life on land 

 to certain death at sea. Another and a more plausible theory is that the fish dis- 

 tends its air bladder to enable it to reach the surface for air or food, and that the keen 

 frosty air there prevents it from compressing the bladder, and thus returning to its 

 habitat under the waves. In this way the luckless fish gradually drifts into shallow 

 water, and is dashed ashore by the surf, only to struggle onto dry land to meet its 

 fate. As may be imagined, the capture of the frostfish has nothing specially 

 sportsman-like about it. The long sandy beaches some twelve miles from Dunedin 

 are the favorite resort of the frostfisher. The usual plan is to form a party of two or 

 more, and camp out overnight at the foot of the cliffs which overhang the beach. 

 Here a huge fire is lighted, and a tent pitched close at hand. The night, of course, 

 must be clear and calm, as well as frosty, otherwise the long Pacific rollers make 

 the surf too high for the successful capture of the game. The fishing itself is 

 rather slow work. It consists merely in walking from end to end of the beach 

 shortly before dawn (the untimely hour chosen by the fish for self-destruction), and 

 keeping a sharp lookout in the surf for the silver streak which betokens the advent 

 of the frostfish. When a fish is seen struggling in the waves or on the sand, all 

 that remains to be done is to catch hold of it, and drag it up out of reach of the 

 backwash (if it does not wriggle up by its own motion), and there dispatch it with 

 a stick or knife. ' ' 



These scaleless fishes ( Trichiurus) take their name from the absence 



of a caudal fin, the body tapering posteriorly into a fine point. The 

 single dorsal extends the whole length of the ribbon-like body; the pelvic fins are 

 represented merely by a pair of scales, or are completely wanting; and the anal is 

 rudimental, its spinous portion being reduced to a number of very small spines 

 scarcely projecting above the skin. The jaws are provided with long tusks, and 

 there are teeth on the palatine bones, although none on the vomer. Essentially 

 tropical fishes, generally found in the vicinity of land, they appear to be sometimes 

 carried by currents out to sea, which will probably account for the occasional ap- 

 pearance of the West-Indian 71 lepturus on the British coasts. These fishes attain 

 a length of from three to four feet; and one of the Indian species is described as ex- 

 tremely voracious, preying on crustaceans and various fishes, among which mem- 

 bers of its own kind are included. 



The local name for a New Zealand representative ( Thyr sites atun ) 



of another genus may be taken as the popular title of all its members. 

 These fishes, in which the rather elongate body is covered with minute scales, are 

 characterized by having from two to six finlets behind the dorsal and anal, and the 

 presence of teeth on the palatines. Barracudas, which grow to as much as five 

 feet, form important food supplies in the Cape, South Australia, New Zealand, and 

 Chili; when the flesh has been dried or otherwise preserved, it is exported from 

 New Zealand in quantities to Mauritius and Batavia. The genus is unknown in 

 the Indian seas, where the family is represented by the hairtails. 



