332 CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



value of the Eels imported into London from Holland amounts 

 some years to more than £130,000. 



The next order, Lophobranchii, or " Bony-fishes in which the 

 gills are not laminated hut composed of rounded lobes attached 

 to the branchial arches," contains only two families, one of 

 which, the Syngnathidce, or Pipe-fishes, is well represented on 

 our coast, though from their small size they are often unobserved. 

 Besides they are not of value as an article of food, and serve only 

 to amuse the curious and interest the naturalist. 



The huge Sun-fish represents the order Plectognathi in our 

 sea. This order contains two families, Sclerodermic fishes with 

 a hard bony skin, and the Gymnodontes, fishes with the "bones 

 of the upper and lower jaws confluent, forming a beak with a 

 cutting edge, without teeth." The Sun-fish belongs to the 

 latter family, and it is, without exception, the most singular of 

 all the fishes captured in the North Sea. 



As it occurs occasionally on this coast, that remarkable fish 

 the Anglesea Morris, a long, thin, transparent, ribbon-like fish, 

 should be mentioned here. It has been recorded but once, that 

 I am aware of, from the East Coast. By Dr. Griinther and others 

 these obscure fishes the Leptocephali are considered immature, 

 and whose development was arrested at an early stage, a theory 

 that scarcely seems to veil our ignorance of their real affinity, 

 and which unfortunately their rarity prevents at present from 

 being satisfactorily worked out. 



The Cartilaginous fishes, Pal^ichthyes, include two orders, 

 the Cartilaginous fishes proper, Chondropterygii, or Sharks and 

 Skates, and the Ganoidei, represented on the East Coast and in 

 recent times by the Sturgeon ; but the most typical representa- 

 tives of this last order are found fossil in Mesozoic and Pakeozoic 

 strata. Of the Sharks the rarest species captured immediately 

 on our own coast are the Eox-Shark or Thresher and the Spinous 

 Shark. The Blue Shark and the Basking Shark, the largest of 

 all the Northern Sharks, have been stated to occur in the North 

 Sea, but further and more reliable evidence is required to sub- 

 stantiate their presence on our coast, and both could only be 

 considered as occasional visitors, even if they did occur, in the 



