Mai.acopterous Abdominals.- 



-FISHES.- 



-Halecoids. 



143 



lalion. Tliese fishes have also minute or rudimentary 

 e)'es, whose optical powers are very low ; a simple air- 

 bladder, communicating with the intestinal canal; a 

 CKcal stomach ; pancreatic CiEca ; and neither pseudo- 

 bianchia>, nor an adipose dorsal. Agassiz is inclined 

 to consider the group as an aberrant Cyprinoid form, 

 but reserves his final decision on its position imtil he 

 has had an opportunity of investigating the embrj'ology 

 of the species composing it. 



In the recesses of the great cave of Kentucky, miles 

 mider ground, there are waters which no ray of sun- 

 light ever reaches, and which are inhabited by blind 

 insects and blind fishes. Dr. Wyman examined four- 

 teen of these fishes [Amblyopsis spelaus), and in three 

 or four of them only was he able to detect an eye-ball 

 beneath the skin. These lie dissected and found that 

 the eye was wholly covered by areolar tissue, and was 

 not organized to receive images of external objects. 

 Slender optic nerves were detected, but he could not 

 trace them to the ojitic lobes of the brain, though the}' 

 doiditless proceeded from thence. The family com- 

 prises two genera, Ambbjnpsis and Chologaster, the 

 latter having like the former a guttural vent, but 

 possessing eyes, and wanting ventrals. It is therelore 

 an apodal, and furnishes one of many instances in zoo- 

 logy of the way in wliicli nature oversteps our artificial 

 classification. 



The Malacopteres with abdominal ventrals which 

 follow, belong mostly to the great Linniean genera, 

 Cliipea, Sahno, and Cyprinus, and are treated ot in 

 much detail in the xvii., xviii., xx., and subsequent 

 volumes of the Histuire cles Poissons. They iiave 

 cycloid scales, a few only being scaleless ; and the 

 bones of the head, cheeks, gill-covers, and shoulder, 

 are generally destitute of serratures and spinous points. 



Family VIII.— CLUPEOIDS or HALECOIDS 

 {Clupcmhi^. —Vlate 3, figs. 13, 17. 



This, which includes the Herrings, ma)' be considered 

 as the most important, or at least as one of the most 

 important families of fish, viewed in respect of the 

 quantity of wholesome food thoj' furnish to man. It 

 may be characterized as follows : — Scaly abdominal 

 Malacopteres having generally elongated and greatly 

 compressed bodies, with thin, trenchant bellies most 

 generall)' denticulated by a series of small dermal bones 

 iuterjiosed between the points of each pair of ribs. 

 Dorsal fin always solitary; ventrals situated near the 

 middle of the body ; no spinous rays in any of the fins. 

 In common with the Salmonoids they have moderately 

 long premaxillaries which join with the maxillaries to 

 form the upper border of the mouth ; the maxillaries 

 are composed of three pieces, wliich separate readily. 

 Gill-openings are on each side, large, joining the isthmus 

 far forward between the limbs of the mandible ; branchial 

 rakers long and n.arrow, projecting towards the mouth; 

 no pseudo-branchia;. Ribs long and slender, with thread- 

 like epipleural sjjincs diverging from them and from 

 the vertebral apophyses. Stomach ca^cal, often fleshy; 

 pyloric ca;ca numerous and long. Ova very numerous, 

 and like the milts towards spawning time, occupying 

 much space in the belly. Air-bladder always large 



and communicating through a slender tube with the 

 point of the ca;cal cone of the stomach, or in some 

 species with the dorsal side of that viscus or of the 

 oesophagus ; rarely does the air-bladder divide poste- 

 riorly into long conical processes ; its anterior end is 

 always simple, generally pointed, and does not pass 

 farther forward than the first spinal vertebra ; neither 

 are there any ossicles connecting it witli the acoustic 

 capsules, as in the Cyprinoids, nor has it any communi- 

 cation with the cavity of the skull. 



The Cliipeoid or Hsilecoid family cont.iins the fullowing 

 gpner.i — CUtpea ; Sai'dlnclla ; Hareiifjaki ; Pdlotia ; Prisfi- 

 yaster ; Rogenia ; Clupeonia ; Spratella ; Kowala ; Meletta ; 

 Alausa; Enyraulis; Coilia ; Odontoynathus or Gnathobolus ; 

 Chali/essas; ^mitojnsfer (Bleeker); Clupelcht/iys {id.). 



This family is of great importance to man in all 

 quarters of the world ; and, of its members, the 

 Herring {Cliipiea Jiarengus) merits the first place. For 

 many centuries it has been the object of a great fishery 

 in the English seas, but the records of it go no farther 

 back than to Anglo-Saxon times, and the Welsh appel- 

 ations of the fish, Pennoy and Ysyade/i, or the Gaelic, 

 Synden (pronounced Scatten) have not found a place 

 in the commercial vocabulary. Neither have the Scan- 

 dinavian terms. Sill or &'W, obtained general currency. 

 Artedi derives the Latin name Ilareiiijus from the 

 German Hariny (in Dutch Hariny). M. Valenciennes 

 thinks that the origin of this German word may have 

 been the Latin arcsco, to dr}', while Pennant attributes 

 it to the German lieer, a host, but neither etymology 

 is satisfactory. The Roman word, Alec or Hahc. 

 denoting any small marine fishes that are salted, as 

 well as a garum made from them, could, as used by 

 Horace, Martial, and Pliny, have no reference to the 

 northern Herring, which does not enter the Mediter- 

 ranean, yet it was the ecclesiastical name for the latter 

 at the time of the Norman conquest. In Doomsday 

 Book, Duuwich is taxed at sexayinla millia alcctum 

 (sixty thousand Herrings), and tlie same word. Alec, 

 occurs in the work on natural history written about the 

 year 1180 by the .\bbess of Ilildegard de Pinguia. The 

 Anglo-Saxon Ilwring, probably even more ancient than 

 the German Hariny, since it belongs to a maritime 

 peoi)le, has kept its groimd in England, with slightly 

 modified spelling, and the Herring fisliery can be traced 

 to au earlier date in England than on the continent. 



In the charter of foundation granted to the monastery 

 of Barking by Erkenwald, bishoj) of London, circa A.D. 

 G80, allusion is made to the salting and smoking of 

 Herrings ; the barrel is ordered to contain five hundred 

 of them, and the levy of these fishes for the use of the 

 monks in Lent is called herring-silver. Mention is 

 likewise made of the Herring in the instructions for 

 managing the revenues of tlie monastery of Eveshnm 

 in Worcestershire, founded in 700 by Bishop Edwin. 

 Edward the Confessor bestowed oti the Abbey of 

 Fecamp a Chesliire salt-work to provide the monks 

 with salt for tlieir Herrings ; and at the time of the 

 Conquest very numerous salt-])ans in the Isle of Wight, 

 and along the eastern coasts, were allotted to those 

 who carried on the Herring fishery. Even at that 

 early date, Yarmouth in Norfolk was the rendezvous of 

 Herring fishers from various parts of England, France, 



