FRESH-WATER FISH. 7 



Esocida, or PIKE family; the PIKE, properly so called, 

 being the only one known in England. They have no 

 adipose dorsal fin ; they are furnished with small 

 pointed teeth in the middle of the upper jaw, where 

 they form two rows ; the vomer, the palatal, the 

 pharynx, and the gill arches are roughened with teeth 

 like a card ; besides which, they have a row of long, 

 pointed teeth in the sides of the under jaw. They have 

 but one dorsal fin, placed over the anal. The third family 

 are the Selinidce, or SHEATH-FISH family; but as these are 

 not known in this country, a description of them would 

 be out of place. The fourth family are the Salmonidce, 

 the SALMON or TROUT family, including, besides the 

 salmon proper, the trout, the smelt, the grayling, the 

 gurnard, and several other species not known in Great 

 Britain. There are some other orders of these 

 fishes, but we need only mention the Malacopterygii 

 apoda, which includes the eel family, all the others being 

 confined to fish not known in our country. 



The other class, or spinous fishes, are separated into 

 fifteen different families, which are named from some 

 well-known species as the type, or from some marked 

 peculiarity of character which belongs to the whole of 

 the family, and to no other fish. The Percidce, or 

 PERCH family, is the only one necessary to be named 

 here, all the others being sea-fish, or fresh-water fish 

 of foreign countries. This family of fish have the body 

 oblong, covered with hard or rough scales, with the 

 gill lid, or the gill flap, or often both, toothed or spinous 

 in the margin. They are mostly thoracic, or have the 

 ventral fins under the pectoral. 



To this enumeration of the principal characteristics 

 of our river fish, which has been chiefly selected and 



