FIS 



ness to the system if it had been possible to find a 

 third name, founded upon some common character of 

 Cuvier's last two orders of bony fishes ; but these are 

 so unlike each other, and all the rest, that this would 

 not. be an easy matter. Could it be done, the true 

 fishes would stand in three distinct divisions ; two of 

 them named from the textures of the fins, or rather 

 of the rays of the fins, and the third of some charac- 

 ter which is not made out in the mean time ; so that 

 at present, besides the ACANTHOPTERYGII, referred to 

 above, there are three divisions ; and the first, and by 

 far the most numerous of the three, is divided into 

 three orders, according to the position of the fins, as 

 already stated. 



MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES have the fins with 

 all the rays soft or jointed, and the two posterior fins 

 on the under part placed far backwards, near the vent, 

 so that in them the position of the four fins, which 

 answer to the extremities of mammalia, have nearly 

 the same relative plane on the body that the four 

 legs have on these. This position indicates the 

 same sort of motion as that of the mammalia, namely, 

 motion in nearly the same plane without much ascent 

 or descent; or that the fishes are straight-forward 

 swimmers, inhabiting the waters at no great depth. 

 They comprise by far the greater number of the fresh 

 water fishes, though some of them are also inhabitants 

 of the sea; the whole family are valuable as food : 

 and some of them are in this respect among the most 

 choice of the finny race. Generally speaking, their 

 gill-openings are large, their gills perfect, and their 

 respiration considerable ; they do not, so far as we 

 know, inhabit the waters at any very great depth ; 

 and with very few exceptions they die very soon after 

 being taken out of their native element. There is a 

 correspondence in the general form of the body to 

 their habits, which renders them a very natural order. 

 They are spindle-shaped, or with long and tapering 

 bodies, a little compressed, but still oval in the sec- 

 tion, with the lateral line straight, the muzzle in 

 general small and neat, and the centre of gravity not 

 very far from the centre of the length. In their 

 shape, indeed, they are, perhaps, the most handsome 

 of all the fishes ; and as, from their abundance in the 

 fresh waters, people have been more familiar with 

 them than with most of the others, they are, perhaps, 

 the typical fishes with most people ; and when we 

 think of a fish, it is a form such as that of one of these 

 which first suggests itself to us. The order is divided 

 by Cuvier into five families. 



The Carp family (Cyprinoides.) These are almost all 

 fresh water fishes, some of them are found in moun- 

 tain pools, where they can hardly be supposed to 

 have come from any other waters ; and there are a 

 few which are capable of making short journeys on 

 land. The opening of the mouth is in general but shal- 

 low, and the jaws have no great strength ; these jaws 

 are often without teeth, and the margin of the mouth 

 is formed by the intermaxillary bones. To compen- 

 sate for the want of teeth in the margin of the mouth, 

 the bones of the pharynx are in general abundantly 

 toothed. The number of rays in the gills is but few ; 

 the body is scaly ; they have no adipose or fatty dor- 

 sal fin, as we find in the silures and the salmon ; their 

 stomach is a simple cul-de-sac ; there are no coccal 

 appendages to their pylorus ; and they are, perhaps, 

 the least carnivorous of all fishes. 



The Pike family (Esocece). Many of these are also 

 inhabitants of the fresh waters, but some of their 

 characters and their dispositions are very different 



495 



from those of the former family. They have no 

 adipose fin on the back ; the margin of the upper 

 jaw is formed by the intermaxillary bones ; and the 

 lower jaw is furnished with very large and formidable 

 teeth. They are exceedingly voracious fishes ; many 

 of them are found in the salt waters, but others inhabit 

 the sea ; all have an air-bag ; and with very few 

 exceptions they have the dorsal fin far back, or im- 

 mediately over the anal. The common pike may be 

 regarded as the typical fish of this family. 



Family of Silures (Siluridce'). These are distin- 

 guished from all the rest of the order by the absence 

 of true scales, having only a naked skin, or that skin 

 covered in some place with bony plate. Their inter- 

 maxillary bones are suspended from the ethmoid bone, 

 and from the margin of the upper jaw ; their maxil- 

 laries are small, or they are produced in fibrous 

 appendages. The intestinal canal is ample, with 

 convolutions but without coeca ; the air bag is large 

 and attached to a peculiar apparatus of bones. The 

 dorsal and pectoral fins have often one strong articu- 

 lated spine as the first ray, and many of the fishes 

 have an adipose or fatty fin, the same as in the salmon. 

 Generally speaking, they inhabit the fresh waters, are 

 rather sluggish fishes, and attain a large size, but 

 their flesh is not held in the highest estimation. 



The Salmon family (Salmonidce). This family is so 

 interesting in very many of the genera that we shall 

 have occasion to treat of it somewhat at length in an 

 article SALMON, so that in the mean time we shall 

 merely mention that in this family the body is scaly ; 

 there are in general two dorsal fins, the first with 

 soft rays, the second very small, and adipose or fatty, 

 to appearance without any rays ; they are furnished 

 with an air bladder, many of them inhabit the fresh 

 waters and others ascend the rivers ; they are in 

 general very voracious fishes, and their flesh is held 

 in great estimation. 



The Herring family (Clupca;'). This is also a most 

 interesting family, and will require a separate notice 

 under the article HERRING, so that we need not enter 

 into many particulars in the mean time. No species 

 of this family has an adipose fin on the back ; the 

 upper jaw is formed as in the trout, of the intermaxil- 

 lary bones in the middle, and the maxillaries at the 

 sides, the body is scaly in all the species, and the 

 scales are often very silvery and shining ; they, in 

 general, have an air-bag, and numerous ceecal appen- 

 dages to the intestines. Most of them are inhabitants 

 of the sea, but some are met with in the fresh waters 

 and others ascend the estuaries of rivers. 



MALACOPTERYGII SUBBRACHIATA. The general 

 character of this order is the abdominal fins situated 

 immediately under the pectoral, or immediately in 

 advance, or in the rear of them. In every instance, 

 however, all the four fins are articulated to the same 

 bones, namely, the bones of the shoulder ; and thus 

 the power of changing- its direction in motion, is con- 

 centrated upon the fore part of the fish. In those 

 species which have nearly the form of those of the 

 preceding order, the head is very much enlarged, and 

 the eyes, and, generally speaking, the gape, and also 

 the gill-openings, are much larger in proportion. The 

 whole of the order are ground fishes, or they, gene- 

 rally speaking, inhabit deeper water, and find their 

 food at or near the bottom. Most of them are sea 

 fishes, but some are found in the fresh waters. Their 

 flesh is, generally speaking, white, and very much 

 prized as food. There are three families in the order. 



The Cod family (Gadoidece). This is one of the 



