NOTES 



ON 



SOME FIGURES OF JAPANESE FISH, 



BY JAMES CARSON BREVOORT. 



The Expedition, owing to the possible difficulties it might have to encounter, was not accom- 

 panied by professed naturalists, which circumstance is much to be regretted. The Marine Fauna 

 of the Pacific, which is in many respects peculiar, would have offered a wide field for investiga- 

 tion, and much valuable information might have been collected. The geographical distribution 

 of fish in that ocean has not yet been studied, though the little that is known on the subject is 

 highly interesting. Many abnormal genera, which connect widely dissimilar groups of other 

 seas, are there met with, while some families there receive their full development. 



A more intimate knowledge of the currents of the Pacific and Indian oceans will be necessary 

 in order to account for the great range of certain fish. The Kuro-Siwo, of the Western Pacific, 

 no doubt produces results similar to those observed in the case of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic, 

 by extending the range of southern, and limiting that of northern marine species. Sir John 

 Eichardson, in 1845, from zoological data of this nature only,* indicated the probability of such 

 a current being found to exist, and his surmises have been fully verified. 



The materials used for this paper consist of spirited figures of sixty kinds of fish, principally 

 valuable from their having been taken from recently procured specimens. They were executed 

 mostly by Messrs. Patterson and Peters, a few being the work of Messrs. Heine and Bayard 

 Taylor, and are more or less correctly drawn ; none of them, however, with any close attention 

 to the specific characters. 



From their authority, several true Salmonidae have been added to the Japanese Fauna, with 

 a few new species of other families. The range of several, described in the Fauna Japonica, 

 has been extended, and some additional materials for the history of others has been gleaned 

 from them. One of the most interesting results of their examination is the proof that viviparous 

 fish, closely allied to the California"*ones, are found on the western shores of the Pacific. Some 

 names of fish, and notes on them, were derived from a young Japanese who returned with the 

 Expedition. He had been engaged in the coasting trade at home, and was familiar with most 

 of the native species. The natives of Japan, generally, are large consumers of fish, and are 

 well acquainted with all the productions of their own seas. 



It will hardly be considered necessary, in this short paper, to give a list of works consulted. 

 Such as could be referred to, are quoted in their proper place. Pallas, in his Zoographia Rosso- 



« Sec his report to the British Association, at the 15th meeting, page 190. 



