330 PISHES AND FISHING. 



clothed with a silvery dust. Length, five feet ; 

 breadth, from three to four inches. 



This curious fish swims in undulating motions and 

 with astounding velocity. It is but very rarely 

 caught in the net. In the course of six years, not 

 more than three individuals, to my knowledge, were 

 taken in Table Bay. I found its flesh fine and 

 delicious. 



MUGILLID^E. 



33. MUGIL CAPENSIS. Cuv. and Val. (Harder; 

 Mullet.} Body, oblong, nearly cylindrical, robust. 

 Head, small, broad, flat ; muzzle, short, blunt : lower 

 jaw with a depression, corresponding to a promi 

 nence in the upper one. Superior mandible provided 

 with a row of fine diminutive teeth. Scales rather 

 large. Dorsal fins, two, remote from each other ; first 

 with four spiny rays ; pectoral fins pointed ; caudal, 

 forked. Surface of head and back, dark steel blue, 

 mingled with oil green ; sides, beneath the lateral 

 line, greyish white, on silvery ground ; cheeks, 

 lower jaw, belly, and ventral fin, white. Fins, grey 

 ish green. Body, crossed by nine narrow longitudinal 

 lines. Interior of the mouth, pure white ; iris, silvery. 

 Length, fourteen inches; breadth, nearly four inches. 



This species, as well as the following, enters the 

 mouths of several rivers. Nursed in ponds, it grows 



