On the fresh-water Fishes of India. 565 



" The fish of the Koonur river, the largest tributary of the 

 Cabul river, so far as I know, are all characteristic of 

 Aflghanistan, consisting of a Barbus with an elongat- 

 ed body, enormously developed fleshy lips, the lower 

 being three-lobed, another Barbus, and one or two 

 Oreini. 



" In the waters of the Khybur Pass, which are chiefly de- 

 rived from a copious spring from cavernous limestone, 

 about half a mile above Ali Musjid, an Oreinus and a 

 Perilampus occur in profusion, and may be taken in 

 numbers by baiting with worms. 



" These waters do not, except during the floods, reach the 

 plain of Peshawur, being gradually lost in the loose 

 shingly bed of the ravine towards its mouth. 



" The characteristic forms of Affghan fish are doubtless 

 the small scaled Barbi and Oreini, and these far ex- 

 ceed the others in number. No Ophicephali, none 

 of the Indian Siluridse, no Macrognathi, no Chamba, 

 no Clupea. The fish are as distinct from the Indian 

 forms as the plants are. 



" The only ordinary sized scaled fish I am acquainted 

 with beyond the influence of the plains, is the beauti- 

 ful silvery Cyprinus of Quettah. 



" By characteristic, I do not mean that these forms are 

 limited to Aflghanistan, because they occur perhaps 

 to equal extent in the Himalayas, to the streams of 

 which those of Aflghanistan approximate more or less 

 in the common features of rapids and bouldery beds. 



" It will be interesting, by way of contrast, to gain a 

 knowledge of the Affghan fish from those rivers, which 

 in their courses through certain vallies, lose for a time 

 their mountainous character ; such for instance as the 

 river of the Peshawur valley, the Elora near Candahar, 

 and the Cabul river eastward of Cabul, and before it 

 re-enters the hills. 



